PS 

2331 

,1)5 


3   1822  01092  0387 


•     . 


1822  01092  0387 


JAMES   RUSSELL   LOWELL. 


JAMES    RUSSELL    LOWELL 


^Biographical  g>fcetrf) 


BY 


FRANCIS  H.  .UNDERWOOD 


BOSTON 

JAMES   R.  OSGOOD   AND   COMPANY 
1882 


Copyright,  1881, 
BY  FRANCIS  H.  UNDERWOOD. 


UNIVERSITY  PRESS: 
JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PARENTAGE  AND  FAMILY 4 

BIRTHPLACE  AND  SURROUNDINGS 8 

EDUCATION 15 

His  FIRST  BOOK 18 

HE   BECOMES   AN   EDITOR 20 

A  SECOND  VOLUME  OF  POEMS 22 

THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  REVOLUTION 28 

A  LITERARY  RETROSPECT 30 

THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  REVOLUTION  MOVES  ON    ...  34 

HOSEA  BIGLOW 38 

CAMBRIDGE  FIFTY  YEARS  AGO 49 

MARRIAGE  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE 54 

THE  VISION  OF  SIR  LAUNFAL 59 

HE  ATTEMPTS  SATIRE 63 

COLLECTED  POEMS.  —  UNIVERSITY  LECTURES  ...  71 

CONVERSATIONS  ON  THE  POETS 75 

FIRESIDE  TRAVELS 77 

His  SECOND  MARRIAGE.  —  THE  "ATLANTIC"     .     .  80 

HOSEA  BIGLOW  AGAIN 85 

JONATHAN  TO  JOHN 87 

FAME  . 91 

INSIDE  VIEW  OF  SECESSION 93 

HOSEA  BECOMES  PASTORAL  AND  IDYLLIC  95 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

PARSON  WILBUR 97 

YANKEE  HUMOR  AND  PATHOS 100 

HOSEA  AS  AN  ORATOR 103 

"THE  ARGYMUNT" 104 

RECONSTRUCTION 106 

THE  DECAY  OK  THE  YANKEE  DIALECT 107 

CHAUCER-BOCCACCIO Ill 

THE  PROFESSOR  SUPPLANTS  THE  POET 114 

UNDER  THE  WILLOWS ....  116 

VILLA  FRANCA 118 

FOR  AN  AUTOGRAPH 119 

METAPHYSICAL  SUBTILTY  IN  POETRY 120 

COMMEMORATION  ODE 123 

Two  FRIENDS 125 

THE  CATHEDRAL.  —  CONSERVATISM 126 

CONCORD,  CAMBRIDGE,  VIRGINIA 133 

CLASSICISM 133 

THE  PROSE  OF  POETS 137 

LOWELL'S  PROSE 140 

GOLD  IN  QUARTZ 144 

PERSONAL  TRAITS  AND  ANECDOTES 150 

THE  WHIST  CLUB 154 

HINTS  OF  FRIENDSHIPS 158 

A  CHARACTER 162 

EDMUND  QUINCY 164 

BEGINS  PUBLIC  LIFE  AT  TUB  TOP  16(5 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL Frontispiece 

ELMWOOD See  page  10 

ELMWOOD  (REAR  VIK\V) "      "     11 

BEAVER  BROOK "      "61 

THE  MILL  WHEEL  .     .     .     .     .     .     .    ..    .  _.   "      "     62 

THE  WAVERLEY  OAKS  .   "      "     63 


JAMES    EUSSELL    LOWELL. 

A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


THE  essence  of  poetry  eludes  analysis,  and 
like  some  of  the  forces  of  nature  is  known 
only  by  its  effects.  These  effects  are  so  va 
rious  that  any  uniform  standard  is  impossible. 
At  times  poetry  lurks  in  satire  and  in  images 
of  the  grotesque ;  sometimes  it  swells  in  the 
fervor  of  religion  or  of  patriotism  ;  sometimes 
it  creates  for  itself  an  interior  world,  as  the 
Inferno  or  the  Paradise  Lost;  sometimes  it 
expresses  emotion  in  view  of  the  beautiful 
or  the  sublime  in  nature ;  again  it  shines  in 
pictures  of  human  life,  as  in  the  Canterbury 
Tales  or  the  Arthuriad ;  or  it  unfolds  the 
mysteries  of  the  soul  and  touches  the  uni 
versal  analogies,  as  in  Shakespeare. 


2  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

Since  the  time  of  Wordsworth,  poets  of  the 
English  race  have  been  strongly  influenced 
by  natural  scenery.  The  poets  of  old  made 
man  the  subject  of  verse.  Virgil  wrote  like 
a  modern  of  woods  and  fountains,  but  in  this 
respect  he  is  alone.  Homer  knew  the  blue 
Olympus  and  the  wooded  Ida,  and  Horace 
could  behold  the  snowy  summit  of  Soracte 
from  his  Sabine  farm;  but  all  the  "  scenery" 
in  the  classical  poems  of  antiquity  (excepting 
the  ^Eneid)  would  not  make  a  page  of  a 
modern  magazine.  We  have  been  having  in 
our  time  a  surfeit  of  landscape  art,  as  in 
Wordsworth  himself  and  in  his  followers,  in 
cluding  Bryant  and  other  Americans.  Many 
modern  poets  have  been  scarcely  more  than 
literal  scene-painters,  and  have  neglected  to 
put  human  figures  in  the  foreground. 

Poetry  reaches  the  soul  through  the  in 
tellect  and  through  the  emotions.  Purely 
intellectual  poetry  may  be  in  a  sense  "  clas 
sic,"  but  it  has  no  life.  Poetry  makes  men 
feel,  rather  than  understand,  and  it  suggests 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  3 

thoughts  and  emotions  not  expressed  in  words. 
As  History  is  only  ceremony  and  costume  un 
til  genius  connects  it  with  the  vital  interests 
of  the  race,  so  the  most  artistic  landscape  is 
only  a  vapid  picture  of  still-life  until  man  ap 
pears  in  it,  informing  it  with  his  own  hopes 
and  fears. 

Poetry,  in  its  essential  quality,  is  disengaged 
from  the  products  of  the  ordinary  mental  facul 
ties.  It  is  something  wholly  apart,  not  a  sum 
mary  nor  an  epigram.  It  never  expounds, 
comments,  nor  exhorts.  It  teaches,  if  it 
teaches  at  all,  by  what  it  suggests,  by  sub 
tile  hints,  and  by  apt  parables.  It  is  only  a 
truism  to  say  that  poetry  is  the  highest  and 
rarest  of  the  productions  of  mind.  But  few 
poets  are  wholly  poetical,  or  "  of  imagination 
all  compact."  Some  dross  is  fused  with  their 
gold.  The  temptation  to  discuss  is  very  strong 
with  men  who  live  and  bear  their  part  in  the 
world.  And  it  has  generally  happened  that 
great  poetical  conceptions  have  been  born  in 
loneliness  or  in  darkness. 


4  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  is  one  of  the 
most  favorable  examples  of  English  descent 
and  American  culture.  As  he  was  born  in  a 
time  of  ferment,  both  as  to  literary  and  theo- 
logic  dogmas,  he  was  naturally  influenced  by 
the  revival  which  the  early  part  of  this  cen 
tury  witnessed.  He  has  profited  by  the  liter 
atures  of  all  nations,  but  he  has  been  the 
disciple  of  no  one  literary  master.  His  suc 
cess  in  verse  is  fairly  matched  by  his  brilliant 
and  poetical  prose ;  and  while  he  is  eminent 
among  scholars,  he  is  at  the  same  time  capa 
ble,  discreet,  and  distinguished  among  pub 
lic  men.  The  events  of  the  times  in  which 
he  has  lived,  and  the  changes  that  have  taken 
place  in  his  own  sphere,  as  will  be  seen  here 
after,  have  affected  in  various  ways  the  pro 
ductions  of  his  pen. 

PARENTAGE  AND  FAMILY. 

The  Lowells  are  descended  from  Percival 
Lowell  of  Bristol,  England,  who  settled  in 
Newbury,  Mass.,  in  1639.  In  the  ancient 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  5 

records  of  the  colony  the  name  is  written 
Lowle.  The  family  has  been  distinguished 
in  every  generation.  Francis  Cabot  Lowell 
(1775-1817)  was  among  the  first  to  perceive 
that  the  wealth  of  New  England  was  to  come 
from  manufactures,  and  it  was  for  him  that 
the  city  of  Lowell  was  named.  John  Lowell 
(1743-1802),  an  eminent  judge,  was  the  au 
thor  of  the  section  in  the  Bill  of  Rights,  by 
which  slavery  was  abolished  in  Massachu 
setts.  John  Lowell,  Jr.  (1799-1836),  was 
the  founder  of  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston. 
This  great  public  benefaction,  which  provides 
annual  courses  of  free  lectures,  was  estab 
lished  by  a  bequest  of  $250,000  in  the  testa 
tor's  will,  written  by  him  while  on  the  summit 
of  the  great  pyramid.  He  was  travelling  in 
the  East,  and  died  not  long  after  at  Bombay. 
Another  John  Lowell  is  at  present  a  judge 
of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States. 
Charles  Lowell  (1782-1861),  a  distinguished 
divine,  was  the  father  of  the  poet. 

The  Russells  have  also  an  honorable  name 


6  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

in  the  colony.  Richard  Russell,  from  Here 
fordshire,  settled  at  Charlestown  in  1 640,  and 
became  a  prominent  man.  His  son  James 
bore  a  manful  part  in  the  trying  times  of 
1688-9,  and  was  all  his  life  hi  positions  of 
trust. 

The  Lowells  have  been  men  of  solid  char 
acter,  earnest,  high-minded,  philanthropic,  and 
possessed  of  strong  practical  abilities.  The 
genius  for  poetry,  manifested  by  the  subject 
of  this  sketch  and  by  his  brother  Robert,  was 
apparently  derived  from  the  maternal  line. 
Dr.  Charles  Lowell  married  Harriet  Spence, 
a  native  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  belonging  to 
a  Scotch  family,  descended  perhaps  from  Sir 
Patrick  Spens,  celebrated  in  the  old  ballad. 
A  dim  tradition  to  this  effect  exists,  but  of 
course  without  the  possibility  of  verification. 
The  mother  of  Harriet  Spence  was  named 
Traill,  a  native  of  one  of  the  Orkneys.1 

Mrs.  Harriet  Spence  Lowell  had  a  great 

1  The  reader  remembers  Magnus  Trail  in  Scott's  novel, 
"  The  Pirate."  Troil  and  Traill  are  the  same. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  7 

memory,  an  extraordinary  aptitude  for  lan 
guages,  and  a  passionate  fondness  for  ancient 
songs  and  ballads.  She  had  five  children : 
Charles,  Robert  (the  Rev.  Robert  Traill 
Spence  Lowell,  an  eminent  author  and  poet), 
Mary  Lowell  Putnam,  Rebecca,  and  James 
Russell,  —  the  subject  of  our  memoir,  who 
was  the  youngest,  born  Feb.  22,  1819. 

Dr.  Lowell  was  a  man  of  sterling  good 
sense,  high  principles,  strict  ideas  of  duty  and 
honor,  and  with  strongly  practical  views  of 
life.  The  children  were  reared  in  the  plain 
style  that  prevailed  in  New  England  sixty 
years  ago.  They  also  had  their  inner  senses 
cultivated  by  the  influence  of  their  mother. 
They  were  nurtured  with  romances  and  min 
strelsy.  The  old  songs  were  sung  over  their 
cradles,  and  repeated  in  their  early  school 
days,  until  poetic  lore  and  feeling  (foreign 
grafts  in  many  minds)  were  as  natural  to 
them  as  the  bodily  senses.  So  in  right  think 
ing  and  living,  and  in  study  and  attainment, 
they  had  a  noble  example  in  one  parent, 


8  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

while  the  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  came 
to  them  through  the  other.  Mary  Lowell 
Putnam,  born  in  1810,  is  a  lady  of  sin 
gular  mental  vigor  and  of  unusual  acquire 
ments,  and  is  the  author  of  several  important 
works.  The  other  daughter,  Rebecca,  died 
in  middle  age,  unmarried.  Charles,  who  died 
at  Washington  about  ten  years  ago,  was  a 
man  of  superior  attainments,  and  the  father 
of  two  brilliant  young  men,  Colonel  Charles 
Russell  Lowell  and  Lieutenant  James  Jack 
son  Lowell,  both  killed  in  our  late  civil  war. 
Mrs.  Putnam's  only  son,  Captain  William 
Lowell  Putnam,  was  killed  also  in  the  disas 
trous  affair  of  Ball's  Bluff,  in  the  early  part 
of  the  war. 

BIRTHPLACE    AND    SURROUNDINGS. 

It  seldom  happens  in  this  country  that  a 
lifetime  passes  without  change  of  residence; 
but,  except  during  his  visits  abroad,  the  poet 
has  always  lived  in  the  house  in  which  he 
was  born. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  9 

Elmwood,  though  not  very  ancient,  has  an 
interesting  history.  The  house  was  built  by 
Peter  Oliver,  who  was  stamp  distributer  just 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  It 
will  be  remembered  that,  being  waited  upon 
by  a  Boston  committee  "  of  about  four  thou 
sand,"  and  requested  to  resign  his  obnoxious 
office,  Oliver  hurriedly  complied,  and  shortly 
after  left  the  country.  The  house  was  next 
occupied  by  Elbridge  Gerry,  an  eminent 
man  in  his  day,  from  whose  crooked  plan  of 
districting,  the  political  term  "  gerrymander 
ing  "  was  derived.  After  his  death  it  became 
the  property  of  Dr.  Lowell,,  about  a  year 
before  the  birth  of  the  poet.  It  is  of  wood, 
three  stories  high,  and  stands  on  the  base 
line  of  a  triangle,  of  which  the  apex  reaches 
nearly  to  the  gate  of  Mount  Auburn  Ceme 
tery.  The  ample  grounds  have  an  abundant 
growth  of  trees,  most  of  them  planted  by 
the  prudent  Doctor  as  a  screen  from  the 
winds.  There  are  a  few  native  elms;  but 
those  which  give  the  name  to  the  estate  are 


10  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

English,  sturdy  as  oaks,  standing  in  front  of 
the  house.  In  front,  also,  are  large  and 
beautiful  ash  trees. 

In  the  deep  space  at  the  rear,  in  the  old 
days,  there  was  perfect  seclusion ;  it  used  to 
seem  like  the  stillness  of  the  woods.  The 
slopes  of  Mount  Auburn,  beautiful  with  na 
tive  growths,  and  not  then  covered  by  fan 
tastic  caprices  in  marble,  are  separated  only 
by  a  narrow  street  Dwellings  were  not 
numerous  or  near.  All  around  the  enclosure 
a  gigantic  hedge  stands  like  a  jagged  silhov- 
ette  against  the  sky.  This  lofty  hedge  is 
made  up  of  a  great  variety  of  trees;  it 
bristles  with  points  of  tufted  pines ;  it  is  set 
at  mid-height  with  thrifty  and  elbowing  wil 
lows  and  dense  horse-chestnuts ;  and  beneath 
it  is  filled  in  with  masses  of  slirubs.  In  the 
area  are  broad  grassy  levels,  with  a  few 
pear  and  apple  trees,  and  nearer  the  house 
are  younger  pines,  elms,  firs,  clumps  of 
lilacs,  syringas,  fleurs-de-lis,  gorgeous  rugs  of 
striped  grass,  and  other  ornamental  growths, 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  H 

disdained  by  modern  gardeners,  but  immortal 
in  the  calendars  of  poets. 

Elmwood  is  full  of  birds,  —  robins  and 
their  homelier  cousins,  the  brown  thrushes, 
swallows,  blue-birds,  flaming1  orioles,  yellow- 
birds,  wrens,  and  sparrows.  The  leafy  cov 
erts  are  inviolate,  and  some  of  the  tenants, 
even  the  migratory  robins,  keep  house  the 
year  round.  All  are  perfectly  at  home,  and 
they  appear  to  sing  all  day.  On  summer 
evenings,  after  the  chatter  of  the  sparrows 
has  ceased  and  the  robins  have  sung  for  cur 
few,  you  may  hear  the  pee-ad  of  night-hawks, 
and  the  hoarse  voices  of  herons  and  other 
aquatic  birds,  as  they  fly  over  from  Fresh 
Pond  or  the  neighboring  marshes. 

During  the  lifetime  of  his  father  the  poet 
occupied  as  a  study  the  south  front  room  in 
the  upper  story. 

Many  years  have  passed  since  that  period, 
and  many  changes  have  occurred  in  the 
landscape  (and  in  the  beholder !).  Perhaps 
the  description  which  follows  may  be  far 


12  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

from  true  to-day.  Hills  have  been  dug 
down,  and  their  gravelly  sides  left  bare. 
Straggling  groups  of  houses  have  here  and 
there  crept  out  on  the  wet  marsh.  The 
horse-cars  have  frightened  away  most  of  the 
birds,  and  almost  put  to  flight  the  poetical 
associations.  But  still  faithful  memory  re 
calls  the  prospect,  and  in  her  tablets  it  shines 
now  as  it  did  so  long  ago.  In  those  treas 
ured  pictures  we  see  the  distant  view  from 
the  study  windows  in  their  varying  aspects. 
The  view  is  broad  and  panoramic,  compris 
ing  portions  of  Brighton,  Brookline,  and 
Roxbury,  and  ending  on  the  left  with  the 
dome  of  the  State  House  in  Boston.  The 
nearer  view,  over  the  neighboring  lawns, 
includes  the  Charles  and  the  marshes.  The 
sluggish  river  winds  through  tracts  of  salt 
meadow,  now  approaching  camps  of  medita 
tive  willows,  now  creeping  under  "  cater 
pillar  bridges,"  and  now  turning  away  from 
terraced  villas  and  turfy  promontories.  In 
summer  the  long  coils  of  silver  are  set  in  a 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  13 

ground  of  green  that  is  vivid  and  tremulous 
like  watered  silk ;  in  autumn  the  grasses  are 
richly  mottled  purple,  sage,  and  brown ;  and 
the  play  of  sunlight  and  shadow,  while  the 
winds  are  brushing  the  velvet  this  way  and 
that,  gives  an  inimitable  life  to  the  picture. 

The  study  contained  about  a  thousand 
volumes  of  books,  a  few  classic  engravings, 
water-color  paintings  by  Stillman,  Roman 
photographs,  a  table  with  papers  and  letters 
in  confusion,  and  a  choice  collection  of  pipes. 
Over  the  mantel  was  a  panel,  venerable  and 
smoky,  that  had  been  brought  from  the 
house  of  one  of  the  ancient  Lowells  in  New- 
bury,  on  which  was  painted  a  group  of 
clergymen  in  their  robes,  wigs,  and  bands, 
seated  about  a  table,  each  enjoying  a  long 
clay  pipe.  On  an  arch  above  an  alcove  was 
this  legend  in  Latin :  "  In  essentials,  unity  ; 
in  non-essentials,  liberty ;  in  all  things, 
charity." 

This  picture,  though  scarcely  a  work  of 
art,  is  interesting  for  the  light  it  throws  upon 


14  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

the  social  customs  of  the  clergy  of  the  last 
century. 

This  room  was  for  many  years  the  delight 
ful  resort  of  a  few  friends,  especially  on 
Sunday  afternoons. 

After  the  death  of  Dr.  Lowell,  the  libraries 
were  brought  together  in  two  connected 
rooms  on  the  lower  floor.  The  new  study 
was  more  spacious  and  convenient ;  but  the 
precious  and  undying  associations,  and  the 
beautiful  outlook,  belonged  to  the  upper 
chamber. 

The  house  throughout  is  an  example  of  the 
picturesque.  In  the  hall  are  ancestral  por 
traits  (one  bearing  the  date  of  1582) ;  busts 
of  Dr.  Charles  Lowell  and  his  father;  a 
stately  Dutch  clock ;  and  Page's  Titianesque 
portraits  of  the  poet  and  his  wife  in  their 
youthful  days.  The  prevailing  tone  of  the 
rooms  is  sombre,  but  the  furniture  is  antique 
and  solid,  such  as  would  make  a  covetous 
virtuoso  unhappy  for  life.  Books  are  every 
where,  mostly  well  chosen  standard  works  in 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  15 

various  languages,  including   a  liberal  pro 
portion  of  plays  and  romances. 


EDUCATION. 

The  nearest  neighbor  to  Elm  wood  in  1825 
was  William  Wells,  who  kept  a  boys'  school, 
and  from  him  the  poet  got  most  of  his  early 
education.  He  was  for  a  time,  however,  pupil 
of  Mr.  Daniel  Gr.  Ingraham,  who  had  a  highly 
successful  classical  school  in  Boston.  Mr. 
Wells  was  a  thoroughly  educated  English 
man,  who  had  been  a  member  of  a  publish 
ing  house  in  Boston,  —  Wells  &  Lilly.  They 
published  excellent  books  ;  among  them,  well 
edited  Latin  classics.  At  that  time,  when 
Lieut-governor  Armstrong  was  making  his 
fortune  out  of  the  "  Life  of  Harriet  Newell " 
arid  "Scott's  Family  Bible,"  the  Wells  & 
Lilly  classics  were  neglected,  and  were  sold 
for  trunk  linings.  The  disheartened  pub 
lisher  went  to  Cambridge  to  diffuse  classical 
learning  in  a  humbler  way.  Many  distin- 


16  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

guished  men  were  indebted  to  Mr.  Wells  for 
their  early  training.  He  was  a  teacher  of 
the  old  school,  —  erudite,  formal,  and  severe ; 
and  it  is  said  that  the  use  of  the  cane,  upon 
refractory  or  idle  pupils,  was  not  then  one  of 
the  lost  arts. 

Mr.  Lowell  entered  Harvard  College  in 
his  sixteenth  year,  and  was  graduated  in 
1838.  Among  his  classmates  and  friends 
were  Charles  Devens,  a  general  in  our  late 
war,  afterwards  a  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  and  lately  the  Attor 
ney  General  of  the  United  States ;  the  Rev. 
Rufus  Ellis  ;  the  late  Professor  Nathan  Hale ; 
the  Hon.  George  B.  Loring,  M.  C. ;  William 
W.  Story,  the  sculptor  and  poet ;  Professor 
H.  L.  Eustis;  the  Rev.  J.  I.  T.  Coolidge ; 
Professor  W.  P.  Atkinson  ;  and  others  less 
known  to  fame.  The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hale  was 
in  the  class  following. 

His  rank  in  scholarship  was  not  a  matter 
of  pride.  He  has  been  used  to  say  that  he 
read  almost  everything,  —  except  the  text- 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  17 

books  prescribed  by  the  faculty.  To  certain 
branches  of  study,  especially  to  mathematics, 
he  had  an  invincible  repugnance.  His  wide 
and  multifarious  reading  was  the  efficient 
fertilization  of  his  mind.  Learning,  in  its 
higher  sense,  came  later.  The  voyages, 
travels,  romances,  poems,  and  plays  he  de 
voured  were  a  better  aliment  for  a  poet  than 
the  regulation  diet  of  Harvard.  His  was 
a  nurture  such  as  Cervantes,  Spenser,  and 
Shakespeare  received.  Though  eminent  and 
able  in  many  ways,  Lowell  remains  abso 
lutely  a  poet  in  feeling.  His  native  genius 
was  fostered  by  the  associations  of  a  singu 
larly  beautiful  home  ;  it  was  nourished  by 
the  works  of  the  dramatists,  —  masters  of 
emotion  and  expression,  —  by  the  ideal  pic 
tures  of  poets  and  novelists,  and  by  the 
tender  solemnity  of  the  discourses  of  his 
father  and  of  Channing,  and  others  of  his 
father's  friends.  Nature  and  the  early  sur 
roundings  had  been  alike  favorable ;  and 
though  he  was  not  a  rhyming  prodigy  like 

2 


18  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

Pope,  lisping  in  numbers,  his  first  effusions 
as  he  came  to  manhood  were  in  poetic  form. 

After  leaving  College,  Lowell  entered  the 
Law  School,  and  having  finished  the  pre 
scribed  course,  took  his  degree  of  LL.B.  in 
1840.  He  opened  an  office  in  Boston,  but 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  ever  seriously 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  law.  It  is  true  he 
wrote  a  story  for  the  "Boston  Miscellany" 
entitled  "  My  First  Client,"  but  that  may  have 
been  a  mythical  person.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hale 
says  that  his  brilliant  future  was  prefigured 
in  his  youth,  —  that  his  original  genius  was 
evident  from  the  first. 

HIS  FIRST  BOOK. 

A  little  before  his  twenty-second  birthday 
he  published  a  small  volume  of  poems,  en 
titled  "  A  Year's  Life."  The  motto  was  from 
Schiller :  Icli  habe  gekU  und  geliebet ;  concern 
ing  which  it  may  be  said  that  most  young 
men  appear  to  have  reached  the  maturity  of 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  19 

having  "  lived  and  loved"  at  a  comparatively 
early  period.  The  poems  are  naturally  upon 
the  subject  that  inspires  youths  of  one-and- 
twenty ;  and  though  they  do  not,  many  of 
them,  appear  in  the  author's  "complete"  col 
lection,  they  are  by  no  means  unworthy  of 
consideration.  They  bear  a  favorable  com 
parison  with  the  "Hours  of  Idleness"  and 
other  first-fruits  of  genius.  The  reader  is  re 
ferred  to  "  Irene,"  "  With  a  Pressed  Flower," 
and  "  The  Beggar."  The  unnamed  lady 
who  is  celebrated  in  the  poet's  verse,  and 
who  afterwards  became  his  wife,  was  Miss 
Maria  White,  a  person  of  delicate  and  spirit 
ual  beauty,  refined  in  taste,  sympathetic  in 
nature,  and  the  author  of  several  exquisite 
poems.  Although  most  of  the  pieces  in  "  A 
Year's  Life "  have  been  set  aside  by  the 
severer  judgment  of  the  poet,  the  student 
will  discover  in  them  many  intimations  of 
the  genius  that  shone  out  more  clearly  in 
later  days.  But  contemporaries  seldom  have 
the  interpretation  which  comes  later  with  full- 


20  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

blown  success.  Margaret  Fuller,  in  "The 
Dial,"  wrote  disparagingly  of  the  verses,  say 
ing  that  neither  their  imagery  nor  their  music 
was  the  author's  own. 

HE  BECOMES  AN   EDITOR. 

In  the  landscape  of  letters,  dead  magazines 
are  the  ruins,  often  more  pathetic  than  pic 
turesque.  Many  a  young  author  has  felt  a 
shock  at  the  downfall  of  his  castle,  and  fortu 
nate  is  he  who  is  not  crushed  under  it  In 
January,  1843,  appeared  the  first  number  of 
the  "  Pioneer,"  a  magazine  of  moderate  size, 
handsomely  printed,  and  illustrated,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  time,  with  steel  engravings. 
"  J.  R  Lowell  and  Robert  Carter "  were 
announced  as  "  Editors  and  Proprietors." 
Three  numbers  only  were  issued  before  the 
publishers  failed.  The  magazine  was  too 
purely  literary  to  be  successful.  The  num 
bers  are  now  exceedingly  scarce,  and  would 
bring  an  almost  fabulous  price.  Imagine  a 
magazine  with  articles  by  Byron,  Shelley, 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  21 

Coleridge,  De  Quincey,  and  Vathek-Beck- 
ford !  In  these  three  numbers  are  two  of 
Hawthorne's  incomparable  stories,  "  The 
Birthmark"  and  "The  Hall  of  Fantasy;" 
essays  upon  Beethoven,  by  John  S.  D wight ; 
able  articles  by  John  Neal ;  an  Oriental  tale 
by  Carter;  and  articles  by  Lowell  on  old 
plays,  and  the  song  writers.  But  the  wealth 
of  the  magazine  was  in  its  poetry  ;  so  many 
famous  people  were  never  enlisted  in  any 
one  enterprise  before  or  since.  Besides  the 
numerous  and  beautiful  contributions  of  the 
editor,  there  were  poems  by  Miss  E.  B.  Bar 
rett  (afterwards  Mrs.  Browning),  Edgar  A. 
Poe,  Whittier,  W.  W.  Story,  T.  W.  Parsons 
(a  name  that  is  to  endure),  Jones  Very  (dain 
tiest  of  sonneteers),  and  George  S.  Burleigh. 
Poe's  poems  were  "  The  Telltale  Heart "  and 
the  well-known  "  Lenore."  Whittier's  was 
entitled  "  Lines  Written  in  the  Book  of  a 
Friend :  "  — 

"  On  page  of  thine  I  cannot  trace 
The  cold  and  heartless  commonplace, 
A  statue's  fixed  and  marble  grace,"  etc. 


22  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

Parsons  contributed  poems  upon  "  The  Hud 
son  River,"  "  The  Shadow  of  the  Obelisk," 
and  "The  Tower  of  Pisa."  Story  was  like 
Mercutio,  a  loyal  and  brilliant  second,  writing 
both  in  prose  and  verse,  and  furnishing  de 
signs  for  the  engraver. 

On  the  whole,  the  "  Pioneer  "  was  a  re 
markable  periodical,  and  its  only  fault  was 
that  it  was  far  above  the  comprehension  of 
the  general  public  of  forty  years  ago. 

Before  this,  Lowell  had  written  some  very 
striking  literary  essays  for  the  "  Boston  Mis 
cellany,"  conducted  by  his  classmate  and  in 
timate  friend,  Nathan  Hale. 

A  SECOND  VOLUME  OF  POEMS. 

About  three  years  after  the  publication  of 
"A  Year's  Life"  appeared  another  volume 
of  poems  well  known  to  readers  of  to-day. 
"The  Legend  of  Brittany"  and  "  Prometheus" 
are  the  longest;  but  the  most  popular  are 
"Rhoecus,"  "The  Shepherd  of  King  Ad- 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  23 

metus,"  "  To    Perdita  Singing,"   "  The  For 
lorn,"  "The  Heritage,"  "  A  Parable,"  etc. 

The  matter  and  the  manner  of  this  volume 
were  new  and  not  wholly  pleasing  to  the 
American  public  of  1844.  As  we  look  back 
and  consider  the  taste  of  that  public,  we  can 
not  indulge  in  any  great  pride.  There  were 
undoubtedly  literary  circles  in  each  of  the 
principal  cities,  in  which  authors  and  works 
were  estimated  with  conscientious  care ;  but 
the  general  tone  was  low.  The  Tityrus  of 
the  herds,  as  Lowell  afterwards  styled  him, 
was  Doctor  Griswold.  An  hour's  study  of 
his  volumes  is  better  than  a  sermon  on  the 
vanitv  of  human  wishes,  or  a  lament  over  the 

«/ 

perishable  nature  of  literary  fame. 

There  were  a  few  names  held  in  honor 
then  that  are  still  more  honored  now.  Long 
fellow  was  in  the  first  flush  of  well-won  fame  : 
men  had  begun  to  name  him  in  the  same 
breath  with  Bryant,  the  recognized  chief  of 
the  bards.  Willis  was  the  Count  D'Orsay 
of  letters,  the  arbiter  elegantiarum.  Holmes 


24  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

was  thought  to  be  a  bright  and  witty  young 
man  of  considerable  promise.  Whittier  was 
talked  of,  but  people  said  he  was  prostituting 
his  muse  in  the  service  of  fanatics.  His  lyrics, 
they  thought,  had  some  fire,  but  an  abolition 
ist,  of  course,  could  not  be  a  poet.  The  re 
tributive  tar-kettle  would  befit  him  rather 
than  the  exhilarating  tripod.  The  first  genius 
of  our  time  —  at  least  among  romancers  — 
was  absolutely  unknown.  The  "  Twice-Told 
Tales"  had  been  published  (1837,  1842),  and 
scarcely  a  thousand  copies  had  been  sold. 
Pierpont's  odes  were  shouted  by  schoolboys, 
and  the  din  of  the  rhymes  on  Public  Satur 
days  was  like  the  riveting  of  steam-boilers. 
Poe's  "  Raven "  was  just  about  making  its 
sequacious  and  tantalizing  lament.  Halleck 
was  the  American  Campbell.  John  Neal  and 
Richard  H.  Dana  were  great  poets,  and  were 
sure  —  some  day  —  to  produce  something 
worthy  of  their  fame.  "  Woodman,  Spare 
that  Tree!"  "The  Old  Oaken  Bucket,"  and 
"  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  had  filled  the  cup  of 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  25 

national  glory  full.  Mrs.  Sigourney,  Mrs. 
Hale,  Miss  Gould,  and  Mrs.  Welby  were 
quoted  with  Mrs.  Barbauld  and  Mrs.  Hemans. 
Editors  then  seemed  perched  on  loftier 
heights  than  now.  The  Philadelphia  maga 
zines,  in  particular,  were  thought  to  be  won 
derful  works  of  genius  and  art.  Those 
magazines  in  which  music  strove  with  milli 
nery,  and  poetry  was  entangled  with  worsted 
patterns,  and  whose  plates  were  fine  enough 
for  perfumery  labels,  represented  a  power  and 
influence  with  the  ingenuous  youths  of  1844, 
which  the  sober  "  Atlantic  "  and  the  versatile 
"  Harper"  have  never  since  wielded.  Poems 
admitted  into  those  elegant  repositories  of  the 
arts  were  already  classic.  To  be  sure,  the 
admiring  reader  at  times  had  some  qualms ; 
as  when,  for  instance,  he  learned  that  a  spring 
gushed  "  like  a  fountain  of  soda,"  and  then 
saw  that  the  hard-pressed  poet  was  forced  to 
lug  in  "  Godey  "  for  a  rhyme.  But  then,  this 
might  be  playful. 

The  revolution  in  letters  has  scarcely  be- 


26  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

gun.  Pope  was  still  greater  than  Homer; 
Byron  was  grander  than  Milton's  Satan; 
Scott  was  the  only  romancer  of  the  ages; 
Wordsworth  was  a  dull  proser,  who  took  a 
pedler  for  his  hero  and  an  idiot  for  the  sub 
ject  of  his  pathos.  Tennyson  was  an  airy 
and  effeminate  stripling,  who  had  a  pleasing 
trick  of  rhyme,  and  who  was  properly  casti 
gated  by  Bulwer  as 

"Out-babying  Wordsworth  nnd  out-glittering  Keats." 

In  Lowell's  verse  there  was  something  of 
Wordsworth's  simplicity,  something  of  Ten 
nyson's  sweetness  and  musical  flow,  and  some 
thing  more  of  the  manly  earnestness  of  the 
Elizabethan  poets ;  but  the  resemblances  were 
external ;  the  individuality  of  the  poet  was 
clear.  The  obvious  characteristic  of  the 
poems  is  their  high  religious  spirit.  It  is 
not  a  mild  and  passive  morality  that  we  per 
ceive,  but  the  aggressive  force  of  primitive 
Christianity.  The  vivid  conception  of  the 
law  of  love  and  of  the  duties  of  brotherhood 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  27 

reminds  us  of  the  time  when  such  thoughts 
were  new  and  startling,  and  before  their  vital 
power  had  been  lost  in  chanted  creeds  and 
iterated  forms. 

There  are  several  of  the  poems  in  this  col 
lection  which  now  seem  prophetic.  They 
were  bold  utterances  at  the  time,  and  were 
doubtless  considered  as  the  rhapsodies  of  a 
harmless  enthusiast.  The  ode  beginning  — 

"  In  the  old  days  of  awe  and  keen-eyed  wonder 
The  poet's  song  with  blood- warm  truth  was  rile," 

may  be  regarded  in  one  aspect  as  a  confession 
of  faith.  In  force  of  thought  and  depth  of 
feeling,  and  in  the  energy  of  its  rhythmic 
movement,  it  is  a  remarkable  production, 
whether  for  a  poet  of  twenty-five  or  older. 
Perhaps  it  is  more  rhetorical  in  its  energy 
than  maturer  taste  would  approve.  It  is  so 
compact  that  a  summary  is  impossible ;  but 
it  announces  in  sonorous  strains  that  the  mis 
sion  of  the  poet,  like  that  of  God's  prophets, 
is  to  attack  wrong  and  oppression,  to  raise 
up  the  weak  and  reclaim  the  erring,  and  to 


28  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

bring  heaven  to  men.  He  decries  the  bards 
who  seek  merely  to  amuse,  and  deplores  their 
indifference  to  human  welfare. 

• 

"  Proprieties  our  silken  bank  environ : 

lie  who  would  be  the  tongue  of  this  wide  land 
Must  string  his  harp  with  chords  of  sturdy  iron, 
And  strike  it  with  a  toil-embrowned  hand." 

This  stirring  ode  was  a  fit  prelude  to  the 
part  our  poet  was  to  perform.  If  there  were 
any  doubt  as  to  the  application,  the  grand 
sonnet  to  Wendell  Phillips,  in  the  same  vol 
ume,  gives  it  emphasis. 

THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  REVOLUTION. 

There  are  poets  whose  verse  has  no  re 
lation  to  time.  "Drink  to  me  only  with 
thine  eyes"  might  have  been  sung  by  any 
lyrist  from  Anacreon  to  Algernon  Swin 
burne.  Others,  like  Dante,  Milton,  Marvell, 
and  Dryden,  who  live  in  times  when  strong 
tides  of  feeling  are  surging  to  and  fro,  —  when 
vital  principles  are  in  controversy,  and  the 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  29 

fate  of  a  people  hangs  upon  the  sharp  deci 
sion  of  the  hour,  — find  themselves,  whether 
they  would  or  no,  in  the  place  of  actors,  —  at 
once  causes  and  products  of  the  turmoil  in 
which  they  are  born. 

Probably  there  were  never  greater  changes 
in  the  ideas,  habits,  and  welfare  of  any  civil 
ized  people  in  any  half  century  than  were 
brought  about  in  the  Northern  States  during 
the  fifty  years  from  the  date  of  the  poet's 
birth.  This  may  appear  to  be  an  unnec 
essarily  strong  statement,  but  it  will  bear 
scrutiny.  That  half-century  witnessed  the 
astounding  changes  which  followed  the  ap 
plication  of  steam,  electricity,  and  the  arts 
to  practical  affairs.  In  the  same  period  the 
bulk  of  our  literature  was  produced ;  and  the 
press,  too,  became  a  power  before  unknown 
in  this  or  any  country.  Legislation  and  juris 
prudence  were  lifted  into  the  light  of  morals. 
Organized  benevolence,  taking  upon  itself 
the  burdens  of  society,  began  to  make  the 
Golden  Rule  an  active  principle  in  human 


30  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

affairs.  In  fifty  years,  the  United  States  had 
outrun  the  usual  progress  of  centuries. 

Europe,  too,  witnessed  great  changes  in 
the  same  period,  but  they  chiefly  related  to 
material  things.  England  and  France  had  lit 
eratures,  arts,  societies,  and  traditions.  The 
United  States,  as  a  nation,  had  none. 

Somewhere  in  our  account  of  the  author 
we  should  glance  at  his  intellectual  lineage, 
and  trace  his  relations  to  the  thinkers  and 
thoughts  of  his  age. 

A  LITERARY  RETROSPECT. 

It  is  sometimes  said  of  a  neglected  genius 
that  he  is  born  out  of  time.  But  this  can 
never  be.  As  the  fauna  of  any  epoch  find 
the  fit  conditions  of  sustenance,  so  the  intel 
lectual  conditions  of  any  period  are  the  ones 
appointed  for  the  growth  of  mind  in  that 
time.  As  the  poet  embodies  in  his  verse,  not 
only  his  love  of  nature  and  religious  feeling, 
but  also  the  results  of  philosophy  and  art, 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  31 

he  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  the 
dominant  ideas  of  his  time.  The  English, 
who  say  we  have  no  poetry,  are  disappointed, 
probably,  in  not  finding  some  flavor  of 
strangeness,  like  that  of  a  wild  duck,  or  some 
daring  novelty  of  form,  as  in  the  prophecies 
of  Walt  Whitman ;  forgetting  that  for  the 
most  part  we  are  still  British,  though  under 
new  conditions,  and  that,  with  our  heritage 
and  traditions,  there  could  be  expected  from 
New  World  singers  only  slight  variations 
from  ancestral  strains.  Our  colonists  repre 
sented  a  high  average  of  English  ability  and 
cultivation.  Their  history  shows  their  blood 
to  have  been  of  the  best.  Yet  in  the  wilder 
ness  literary  art  languished,  and  taste  was 
perverted.  There  was  no  poetry  on  the 
manifest  of  the  "  May  flower"  or  of  the  "  Ar- 
bella ; "  it  had  been  left  behind  with  Eng 
land's  larks  and  daisies.  A  century  passed 
before  the  savage  forests  had  lost  their  ter 
rors  and  the  homes  of  the  settlers  began 
to  bloom  in  beauty.  Neither  prose  nor 


32  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

verse  flourished  until  after  the  revolutionary 
war. 

Our  recognized  literature  began  with  Bry 
ant  and  Irving;  but  its  real  sources  were 
in  Channing,  his  associates  and  disciples,  or 
rather  in  the  intellectual  movement  that  fol 
lowed  the  decline  of  ecclesiastical  rule. 

Channing,  so  far  as  he  was  a  conscious 
agent,  was  a  mild-tempered  agitator,  remark 
able  for  nobility  of  character  and  for  a  spiritu 
ality  that  was  almost  angelic.  The  revolution 
he  led  was  against  the  dominant  theology, 
but  the  influence  was  felt  bv  millions  who 

v 

never  accepted  the  new  doctrines.  Clerical 
limitations  became  obsolete.  People  redis 
covered  Shakespeare,  as  amateur  astrono 
mers  discover  Jupiter ;  for  the  works  of  the 
chief  of  poets  had  before  this  been  unknown 
to  Puritan  libraries.  It  was  found  that  there 
were  writers  and  thinkers  who  were  not 
wearers  of  Geneva  bands.  Channing  him 
self  was  no  longer  shut  up  in  a  remote 
corner,  but  was  welcomed  into  the  fraternity 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  33 

of  lettered  men.  Until  his  essays  on  Milton, 
Fenelon,  and  Napoleon  appeared,  European 
scholars  had  never  thought  of  America  ex 
cept  in  connection  with  savages,  fish,  furs, 
and  rebellion.  The  breadth  and  force  of 
this  movement  can  scarcely  be  overesti 
mated.  Excepting  Irving,  Cooper,  and  Poe, 
there  has  not  been  an  American  author  of 
high  rank  in  this  century  whose  intellectual 
lineage  is  not  traceable,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  Channing  and  Emerson. 

A  new  light  emanated  from  Nature ;  or 
rather  the  hills,  rivers,  and  lakes  were  seen 
with  .anointed  eyes.  Keligion,  as  well  as 
literature,  was  secularized,  though  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  was  still  supreme.  In  the 
course  of  time,  Christianity  got  new  applica 
tions,  and  later,  democracy  had  new  and 
startling  definitions.  The  contest  had  be 
gun,  which  in  due  time  was  to  wash  out  the 
color  line  with  blood.  Story  and  poem, 
history  and  essay,  national  in  tone  and 
with  vital  characteristics,  gave  new  life  to 

8 


34  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

society   and   new  lustre    to    the    American 
name. 

It  was  in  the  springtime  of  the  new 
thought  that  our  poet  was  bom. 

THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  REVOLUTION   MOVES  ON. 

The  function  of  the  critic,  as  Mr.  Stedman 
has  pointed  out,  is  to  anticipate  the  solid  and 
dispassionate  judgment  of  posterity  upon  the 
works  of  to-day,  —  a  task  sufficiently  diffi 
cult,  for  the  critic  himself  may  be  enslaved 
by  the  literary  fashions  which  he  ought  to 
resist  and  deplore.  No  one  can  say  what 
may  be  the  standard  of  taste  a  century 
hence;  for  it  cannot  be  known  what  direc 
tion  it  will  receive  from  some  unborn  master 
spirit,  who  will  dominate  his  age.  But  in 
regard  to  the  fundamental  laws  of  ethics 
there  cannot  be  any  retrogressive  movement. 
So  much  is  sure. 

And  to  a  man  in  the  twentieth  century, 
looking  back,  what  will  appear  the  great  fact 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  35 

of  our  time?  Indubitably  the  fulfilment 
of  the  democratic  idea  in  the  abolition  of 
African  slavery.  It  is  the  most  important 
event  since  the  discovery  of  America.  The 
schemes  of  Bismarck,  Gortschakoff,  and  Bea- 
consfield,  or  even  the  gigantic  crimes  of 
Napoleon,  are  mere  games  of  chess  in  com 
parison.  Yet  the  time  has  been  when  such 
an  opinion  would  not  have  been  tolerated  in 
polite  society.  The  evil  was  intrenched  in 
law,  defended  by  statesmen  and  political 
economists,  apologized  for  by  clergymen, 
and  made  respectable  by  custom.  Like  its 
kindred  oppressions,  absolutism  and  caste, 
(for  which  we  trust  Fate  has  an  end  at  once 
effectual  and  peaceful),  slavery  was  adorned 
by  the  fictile  graces  of  romance  and  the  false 
glamour  of  poesy.  The  anti-slavery  move 
ment  has  been  lately  classed  with  isms  by 
those  who  see  no  deeper  than  the  surface 
of  things,  as  if  it  were  a  fashion,  like  that 
of  bran  bread ;  but  it  was  such  an  ism  as 
Christianity,  or  Democracy,  or  International 
Peace,  or  Human  Brotherhood. 


36  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

• 

The  position  of  Lowell  was  fixed  from  the 
beginning.  The  teachings  of  Channing  and 
of  his  father,  the  doctrines  of  the  New  Tes 
tament,  and  the  example  of  his  grandfather 
(author  of  the  liberty  clause  in  our  Bill  of 
Rights),  all  pointed  in  one  direction.  He 
became  an  abolitionist  when  the  name  signi 
fied  a  fanatic  and  fool.  He  did  not,  however, 
continue  long  with  the  theorists  who  believed 
the  road  to  universal  freedom  must  be  laid 
over  the  ruins  of  the  Constitution,  but  joined 
with  those  who  meant  to  extirpate  the  evil 
by  legal  means. 

The  sincerity  and  the  unflinching  zeal  of 
the  anti-slavery  leaders  are  not  to  be  ques 
tioned,  but  in  the  nature  of  things  they  were 
scarcely  entertaining.  Their  discourses  were 
seldom  enlivened  by  wit  or  humor.  It  was 
an  awful  "burden"  they  bore.  One  would 
as  soon  expect  a  joke  from  Jeremiah.  Of  lit 
eral  sarcasm  and  downright  blows  there  were 
plenty.  It  is  noticeable,  also,  that  in  the 
first  two  volumes  of  Lowell's  poems  there  is 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  37 

not  a  single  witticism,  nor  a  hint  of  the  comic 
power  that  was  to  place  him  among  the  first 
of  humorists  and  satirists.  In  his  "  Conver 
sations  on  the  Poets,"  now  out  of  print  and 
scarce,  there  are  many  keen  strokes  and  ludi 
crous  comparisons,  like  those  in  later  books 
with  which  the  public  has  become  familiar. 
In  the  "  Conversations"  we  see  more  of  the 
natural  man  ;  in  the  early  poems  we  see  the 
decorous  bard  in  the  proprieties  of  cere 
monial  robes.  One  might  believe  that  the 
brilliant  raillery  which  Lowell  afterwards 
turned  upon  the  supporters  of  slavery  had 
its  origin  in  a  reaction  from  the  monotonous 
oratory  of  some  of  his  associates.  The  pub 
lic,  which  could  bear  a  great  deal  of  argu 
ment  upon  the  national  sin,  unmoved,  was 
found  to  be  keenly  sensitive  to  the  corus 
cations  of  wit,  and  sorely  vulnerable  to  the 
arrows  of  ridicule. 

In  the  summer  of  1846,  the  Mexican  war 
was  in  progress,  and  the  abolitionists  were 
urging  (what  is  now  accepted  as  the  truth  of 


38  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

history)  that  it  was  waged  to  obtain  new 
territory  for  the  extension  of  slavery,  and 
thereby  to  counterbalance  the  growing1  power 
of  the  Northern  States.  President  Polk  had 
been  elected  to  cany  out  the  scheme.  The 
appeal  was  to  Congress,  through  the  con 
science  of  the  nation,  to  stop  the  supplies. 

HOSEA  BIGLOW. 

Mr.  Lowell  wrote  a  letter  in  June  to  the 
"Boston  Courier,"  purporting  to  come  from 
Ezekiel  Biglow,  enclosing  a  poem  in  the 
Yankee  dialect,  written  by  his  son  Hosea, 
in  which  the  efforts  to  raise  volunteers  in 
Boston  were  held  up  to  scorn. 

"  Thrash  away,  you  '11  hev  to  rattle 

On  them  kittle-drums  o*  yourn,  — 
T  aint  a  knowin'  kind  o'  cattle 
Thet  is  ketched  with  mouldy  corn." 

Society  was  puzzled.  Critics  turned  the 
homely  quatrains  over  with  their  talons  as 
kittens  do  beetles,  shook  their  wise  ears,  and 
doubted.  Politicians  thought  them  flat  or 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  39 

vulgar.  Reverend  gentlemen,  who  had  not 
been  shocked  at  the  auction  of  "  God's  im 
ages  in  ebony,"  considered  the  poet  profane 
and  blasphemous.  But  the  epithets  stuck 
like  burrs.  The  lines  were  jingling  every 
where.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
the  movement  the  laugh  was  on  the  side 
of  the  reformers.  The  peculiarities  of  some 
of  the  more  eccentric  had  furnished  the  wags 
heretofore  with  material  for  abundant  gibes. 
The  long  curls  of  Absalom  Burleigh,  the 
masculine  declamation  of  Mrs.  Abby  Kelley 
Foster,  the  sledge-hammer  action  of  Henry 
C.  Wright  (perhaps  the  original  of  Haw 
thorne's  Hollings worth!),  the  white  woollen 
garments,  patriarchal  beard,  and  other-world 
looks  of  Father  Lamson,  and  the  pertinacity 
of  the  meek  lunatic,  Abby  Folsom,  had  made 
every  meeting  of  the  New  England  Anti- 
Slavery  Society  as  rare  a  show  for  the  baser 
sort  as  a  circus  or  a  negro  concert.  Now 
the  leading  men  in  church  and  state  were 
stung  by  pestilent  arrows.  Great  names 


40  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

were  no  protection.  The  unanswerable  ar 
guments  of  Garrison  and  the  magnificent 
invectives  which  Wendell  Phillips  had  hurled 
at  well-dressed  mobs  were  now  supplemented 
by  the  homeliest  of  proverbial  phrases,  set  to 
the  airiest,  lilting  rhythm,  adorned  with  the 
choicest  and  most  effective  slang,  and  ting 
ling  with  the  free  spirit  that  had  animated 
a  line  of  fighting  Puritans  since  the  time  of 
Naseby.  The  anti-slavery  music  was  in  the 
air,  and  everybody  had  to  hear  it. 

The  more  cultivated  of  the  abolitionists 
were  in  ecstasies.  Some,  however,  did  not 
quite  understand  it.  The  levity  of  tone 
hardly  accorded  with  the  prophetic  burdens 
they  had  been  used  to.  When  Charles 
Sumner  saw  the  first  Biglow  poem  in  the 
"  Courier,"  he  exclaimed  to  a  friend,  "  This 
Yankee  poet  has  the  true  spirit.  He  puts 
the  case  admirably.  I  wish,  however,  he 
could  have  used  good  English  ! " 

Hosea  Biglow  kept  up  the  warfare,  and 
each  poem  was  furnished  with  a  preface  and 


v- 


40 


t  ton.       I  he    ui 
i/univiits   of  Gurri 

\  hirh  AV 

by  the  ! 


the  airiest,  liltii 
choicest   and   n 

• 

:i  lino  of  li^litii  _ 
Nasefov.     T 

gr 

air,  and  everyb 

The  more 

>vero  in  ec  «.T,  did 

quit 

.«•(  crdt-d   \\ 
>\-  the    ! 


,»_•.  and   i. 

i  it. 


i    v  ish,   I  . 

L  a  !" 

;i{j    the   u.. 

i 


"  Courier,"  he 

Yanl 

th«-   cast^  admirably, 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  41 

notes  by  an  imaginary  Parson  Wilbur. 
First,  a  Mexican-war  recruit  gave  his  amus 
ing  experiences  from  the  field.  Then  came 
"  What  Mr.  Robinson  Thinks."  This  tickled 
the  public  amazingly,  and 

"  John  P. 

Robinson  he 
Sez  he  wunt  vote  fer  Guvener  B.," 

was  in  every  one's  mouth,  like  the  "What, 
never  I  "  of  "  Pinafore."  Mr.  Robinson  was 
a  refined  and  studious  man,  unhappily  on  the 
wrong  side  of  a  moral  question,  and  was  not 
a  little  annoyed  by  his  "  bad  eminence ;  "  but 
he  is  preserved  in  the  Biglow  amber,  like 
an  ante-Pharaonic  fly.  There  is  a  ludicrous, 
though  perhaps  mythical  story,  that  he  went 
abroad,  to  get  out  of  hearing  the  sound  of  his 
own  name.  As  soon  as  he  landed  at  Liver 
pool,  however,  and  got  to  his  hotel,  he  heard 
a  child  in  an  adjoining  room  idly  singing. 
He  listened.  Yes,  it  was  true ;  the  detested 
refrain  had  got  across  the  ocean.  It  was 

"John  P. 

Robinson  he  " 


42  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

that  the  baby-ruffian  was  trolling.  He  sailed 
to  the  Mediterranean,  and  stopped  at  Malta. 
While  looking  at  the  ruins  of  the  works  of 
the  Templars  he  observed  a  party  of  English 
not  far  distant,  and  presently  another  infan 
tile  voice  sang 

"  But  John  P. 
Robinson  he 
Sez  they  did  n't  know  everythin'  down  in  Judee." 

About  this  time  the  late  Dr.  Palfrey,  the 
historian,  then  an  able  and  eloquent  member 
of  Congress,  had  refused  to  vote  for  Mr. 
Winthrop,  the  Whig  candidate  for  speaker. 
Hosea  Biglow  gave  expression  to  the  party 
wrath  in  a  burlesque  version  of  a  speech  sup 
posed  to  have  been  delivered  at  an  indigna 
tion  meeting  in  State  Street.  This  was  the 
opening :  — 

"  No  ?    Hez  he  ?   He  haint,  though  ?    Wut  ?    Voted  agin  him  ? 
Ef  the  bird  of  our  country  could  ketch  him,  she  'd  skin  him ! " 

"A  Debate  in  the  Sennit,  sot  to  a  Nusry 
Rhyme"  followed;  then  "The  Pious  Editor's 
Creed,"  and  a  burlesque  of  General  Taylor's 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  43 

letter  accepting  the  nomination  for  the  presi 
dency.  The  first  letter  from  Birdofredum 
Sawin,  the  Mexican  volunteer,  created  great 
merriment  on  account  of  its  local  hits,  espe 
cially  those  relating  to  Caleb  Gushing,  the 
eminent  publicist,  who  was  at  that  time  a 
general  in  command.  Many  of  the  finest 
touches  are  lost  upon  readers  of  to-day.  The 
second  letter  of  the  series  is  probably  the 
most  fluent,  adroit,  and  effective.  The  writer 
had  been  sadly  mutilated,  ill-treated,  and  dis 
illusioned.  He  had  imagined  Mexico  as  a 
country 

"  Ware  propaty  growed  up  like  time,  without  no  cultivation) 
An'  gold  wuz  dug  ez  taters  be  among  our  Yankee  nation, 
Ware  nateral  advantages  were  pufficly  amazin', 
Ware  every  rock  there  wuz  about  with  precious  stuns  wuz 

blazin', 
Ware  mill- sites  filled  the  country  up  ez  thick  ez  you  could 

cram  'em 
An'  desput  rivers  run  about  a  beggin'  folks  to  dam  'em." 

The  temptation  to  quote  is  strong,  but  there 
must  be  a  limit.  Every  couplet  contains 
some  felicitous  absurdity  or  hard  hit.  The 


44  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

volunteer  finally  descants  upon  his  own  mer 
its  and  available  qualities,  and  offers  himself 
as  a  candidate  for  President  under  the  sobri 
quet  of  "  The  One-eyed  Slarterer."  In  a  third 
letter,  the  last  of  the  first  series,  Mr.  Sawin 
withdraws  in  favor  of  "O1*  Zack"  (General 
Taylor). 

The  poems  were  finally  gathered  into  a 
volume,  which  in  comic  completeness  is  with 
out  a  parallel.  The  "  work "  begins  with 
"  Notices  of  the  Press,"  which  are  delightful 
travesties  of  the  perfunctory  style  both  of 
" soft-soaping "  and  of  "cutting  up."  There 
happening  to  be  a  vacant  page,  the  space  was 
filled  off-hand  by  the  first  sketch  of  "  Zekle's 
Courtship : "  — 

"  Zekle  crep'  up,  quite  unbeknown, 
An'  peeked  in  thru  the  winder, 
An'  there  sot  Huldy  all  alone, 
'ith  no  one  nigh  to  bender." 

This  is  the  most  genuine  of  our  native  idyls. 
It  affects  one  like  coming  upon  a  new  and 
quaint  blossoming  orchid,  or  hearing  Schu- 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  45 

mann's  Einsame  Blume.  Its  appearance  in 
the  "  Biglow  Papers "  was  purely  an  acci 
dent  ;  but  it  had  the  air  of  being  an  extract, 
and  it  was  so  greatly  admired  that  the  poet 
afterwards  added  stanzas  from  time  to  time 
to  fill  out  the  picture.  In  the  original  sketch 
there  were  six  stanzas ;  there  are  now  twenty- 
four.  Some  of  the  added  stanzas  are  fully 
as  picturesque  and  striking  as  those  in  the 
original  improvisation.  This  is  the  first :  — 

"  God  makes  sech  nights,  all  white  an'  still 

Fur  'z  you  can  look  or  listen, 
Moonshine  an'  snow  on  tield  an'  hill, 
All  silence  an'  all  glisten." 

Of  the  progress  of  Zekle's  passion  he  says :  — 

"  But  long  o'  her  his  veins  'ould  run 

All  crinkly  like  curled  maple, 
The  side  she  breshed  felt  full  o'  sun 
Ez  a  south  slope  in  Ap'il." 

Of  Huldy's  nature  :  — 

"  For  she  was  jes'  the  quiet  kind 

Whose  nature  never  vary, 
Like  streams  that  keep  a  summer  mind 
Snow  hid  in  Jenooary." 


46  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

There  is  a  burlesque  advertisement  in  Latin 
of  one  of  Mr.  Wilbur's  projected  works  pre 
ceding  the  titlepage.  The  title  itself  is  a 
travesty  reminding  one  of  the  days  of  black- 
letter  quartos.  The  head-line  is  "  MELIBOEUS 
HIPPONAX,"  as  much  as  to  say,  "This  is  a 
horse-eclogue."  A  note  informs  us  of  the  po 
sition  of  Mr.  Wilbur  in  the  learned  world, 
and  refers  us  to  some  scores  of  (imaginary) 
societies  to  which  he  belongs.  The  Introduc 
tion  gives  some  account  of  the  poet,  Hosea 
Biglow,  and  quotes  specimens  of  his  serious 
verse;  and  it  may  be  said  here  that  these 
supposititious  fragments  are  equal  to  the  best 
descriptive  poetry  of  our  time.  The  editor 
goes  on  to  discuss  the  Yankee  dialect  and  its 
pronunciation,  and  at  length  loses  himself  in 
a  maze  of  genealogical  notes  and  queries. 

The  notes  and  comments  of  the  grave  and 
erudite  parson  are  difficult  to  characterize. 
One  sees  that  he  is  professionally  solemn  and 
pedantic,  and  often  ridiculous  in  adhering  to 
obsolete  modes  of  spelling  and  to  old-fash- 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  47 

ioned  ways.  In  every  page  there  are  striking 
thoughts,  as  well  as  a  profusion  of  imagery 
and  an  affluence  of  learning;  but  there  is 
also  a  quaint  flavor  of  antiquity,  as  if  the 
honey  of  his  periods  had  been  gathered  from 
the  flowers  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  and  holy  George  Herbert.  Noth 
ing  finer  or  more  characteristic  is  to  be  found 
in  any  of  Lowell's  varied  and  splendid  writ 
ings. 

Look,  for  example,  at  the  episodical  sketch 
of  the  newspaper,  —  as  graphic  as  the  best 
of  Carlyle's,  —  or  at  the  picture  of  the  army 
recruit,  who  is  enlisted  the  morning  after  a 
debauch, 

In  the  course  of  the  volume  the  parson  de 
lineates  himself,  until  he  becomes  a  charac 
ter  as  real  and  as  charming  as  the  most 
enduring  creations  of  English  fiction.  To 
parody  one  of  the  poet's  own  couplets  :  — 

And  "  Wilbur  "  won't  go  to  oblivion  quicker 
Than  Adams  the  parson,  or  Primrose  the  vicar. 

Which  of  the  dear  and  stately  black-robed 


48  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

visitors  of  Elm  wood  sat  for  this  unrivalled 
picture  it  may  not  be  wise  to  inquire ;  but 
all  the  lettered  folk  above  fifty,  in  Boston 
and  Cambridge,  think  they  have  known  him. 
The  creations  of  genius,  like  Colonel  New- 
come  and  Don  Quixote,  are  entities;  while 
historical  characters,  such  as  George  IV.  and 
Philip  II.,  may  be  only  shadows. 

The  "  Biglow  Papers  "  end  appropriately 
with  a  comic  glossary  and  index.  It  must  be 
repeated,  by  way  of  emphasis,  that,  from  the 
first  fly-leaf  to  the  colophon,  this  is  the  only 
complete  and  perfect  piece  of  grotesque  com 
edy  in  existence. 

In  time,  historical  notes  will  be  needed,  as 
they  are  now  for  Hudibras.  That  the  Yankee 
satire  is  to  be  enduring,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
Its  total  merits  greatly  outweigh  those  of 
Hudibras ;  it  has  far  more  humor,  and  more 
quotable  lines ;  and  it  has  a  great  advantage 
in  its  unique  concomitants. 


A    BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  49 

CAMBRIDGE  FIFTY  YEARS  AGO. 

As  the  Yankee  peculiarities  of  the  "  Biglow 
Papers  "  are  evidently  fresh  studies,  it  might 
appear  strange  that  they  could  be  wrought 
out  by  a  resident  of  Cambridge.  The  vis 
itor  to-day  sees  magnificent  college  buildings, 
broad  streets  filled  with  carriages  arid  trav 
ersed  by  horse-cars,  and  comfortable  resi 
dences  that  testify  to  wealth  and  luxury. 
There  is  still  space  for  gardens  and  trees,  and 
for  open  squares  and  trim  lawns ;  but  the  tone 
is  urban.  If  Cambridge  is  in  any  respect 
rural,  it  is  riot  in  the  least  rustic.  The  prime 
val  Yankee  has  become  scarce  everywhere ; 
he  is  hardly  obtainable  as  a  rare  specimen ; 
he  is  a  tradition,  like  the  aurochs  or  the  great 
bustard.  He  and  his  bucolic  manners  and 
speech  are  utterly  gone.  There  is  not  the 
echo  of  a  haow  in  any  of  the  pretentious 
Italian  villas,  —  nor  even  in  the  heavy-tim 
bered  mansions,  like  that  of  Lowell's  friend, 
G.  N.,  dating  from  1656.  The  «  W.  I.  Goods  " 

4 


50  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

store,  with  clusters  of  farmers'  teams  in  front, 
has  yielded  to  the  "  march  of  improvement." 
Oxen  are  as  strange  as  camels,  and  if  there 
were  a  milkmaid  to  be  found,  her  hands  would 
smell  of  mille-fleurs  or  patchouli.  As  soon 
expect  the  return  of  Jacob  and  Rachel  as  to 
see  again  the  originals  of  the  poet's  Zekle  and 
Huldy. 

The  old  town  as  it  was  in  Lowell's  boy 
hood  is  sketched  with  rare  humor  and  fine 
touches  in  an  article  by  him,  published  in 
"  Putnam's  Monthly"  in  1853,  entitled  "  Cam 
bridge  Thirty  Years  Ago."  It  is  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  addressed  to  the  "  Edelmann 
Storg ; ''  namely,  to  W.  W.  Story,  the  sculp 
tor,  Lowell's  classmate  and  intimate  friend, 
whose  name  a  Swiss  innkeeper  had  once  so 
misread. 

This  charming  essay,  brimming  with  feel 
ing  and  full  of  the  graces  that  delight  culti 
vated  readers,  shows  Lowell  himself  in  his 
early  maturity  in  the  most  striking  way. 
Later  essays  may  be  more  profound,  but 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  51 

none  of  them  are  so  full  of  the  sunshine  of 
the  heart.  In  this  masterly  picture  we  see  a 
country  village,  silent  and  rural.  There  are 
old  houses  around  the  bare  common,  "  and 
old  women,  capped  and  spectacled,  still 
peered  through  the  same  windows  from 
which  they  had  watched  Lord  Percy's  ar 
tillery  nimble  by  to  Lexington."  One  coach 
sufficed  for  the  travel  to  Boston.  It  was 
"  Sweet  Auburn  "  then,  a  beautiful  woodland, 
and  not  a  great  cemetery.  The  "  Old  Road  " 
from  the  Square  led  to  it,  bending  past  Elm- 
wood.  Cambridgeport  was  then  a  "huckle 
berry  pastur',"  having  a  large  settlement  of 
old-fashioned  taverns,  witli  vast  barns  and 
yards,  on  the  eastern  verge.  "  Great,  white- 
topped  wagons,  each  drawn  by  double  files 
of  six  or  eight  horses,  with  its  dusty  bucket 
swinging  from  the  hinder  axle,  and  its  grim 
bull-dog  trotting  silent  underneath,  .  .  . 
brought  all  the  wares  and  products  of  the 
country  to  Boston.  These  filled  the  inn- 
yards,  or  were  ranged  side  by  side  under 


52  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

broad-roofed  sheds ;  and  far  into  the  night  the 
mirth  of  the  lusty  drivers  clamored  from  the 
red-curtained  bar-room,  while  the  single  Ian- 

'  O 

tern,  swaying  to  and  fro  in  the  black  cavern 
of  the  stables,  made  a  Rembrandt  of  the  group 
of  ostlers  and  horses  below." 

Commencement  was  the  great  day,  to 
which  the  Governor  came  in  state,  with 
military  escort  The  annual  muster  of  the 
militia,  which  took  place  sometimes  at  Cam 
bridge  and  sometimes  in  other  neighboring 
towns,  brought  together  all  the  boys  of  the 
county  to  see  the  various  shows  and  the 
hilarious  sport  called  a  "  Cornwallis." 

If  you  look  at  the  people,  you  ob 
serve  strongly  marked  social  distinctions. 
The  humbler  classes  toiled,  and  were  not 
ashamed  of  it.  They  did  not  ape  the  man 
ners  of  the  college  circle,  nor  the  luxury  ot 
the  wealthy. 

The  provincial  tone  was  evident.  You 
have  only  to  talk  with  an  old  Bostonian 
even  now  to  see  how  it  was.  The  old 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  53 

leaders  of  society  had  a  little  of  the  mock 
majesty  of  Beranger's  Roi  d'Yvetdt.  But  the 
main  thing  was,  that,  up  to  1830,  the  manners 
and  speech  of  ordinary  folk  were  those  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  The  rustic  Yankee 
was  then  a  fact.  In  fifty  years,  by  the  aid 
of  steam  and  electricity,  Boston  became  a 
modern  city,  on  equal  terms  with  the  Old 
World,  a  centre  of  itself,  and  Cambridge  was 
developed  into  a  highly  cultivated  suburb. 
The  rusticity,  leisure,  humor,  and  homespun 
naturalness  were  gone.  The  changes  of  two 
hundred  years  went  by  in  a  lifetime. 

Recalling  old  Cambridge  by  the  aid  of 
Lowell's  reminiscences,  we  see  how  the  ver 
nacular  idioms  and  the  humorous  peculiarities 
of  the  people  are  so  naturally  reproduced  in 
his  comic  verse.  No  poet  of  a  later  day 
could  have  evolved  such  creations,  so  perfect 
in  nature  and  dress,  so  thoroughly  identi 
fied  with  the  antique  world.  The  acquaint 
ance  with  the  primeval  Yankee,  begun  in  the 
old  town,  was  extended  afterwards  by  visits 


54  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

to  the  Adirondacks  and  to  Moosehead  Lake  ; 
and  though  many  artists  have  made  striking 
and  effective  sketches  of  this  vanished  origi 
nal,  —  notably  Mrs.  Stowe  and  Mrs.  Rose 
Terry  Cooke,  —  it  is  the  belief  of  the  writer, 
whose  boyhood  was  passed  among  the  most 
perfect  native  specimens  of  the  race,  that 
Lowell  has  surpassed  all  rivals  in  depicting 
him.  This  opinion  is  not  based  upon  the 
"  Biglow  Papers  "  alone.  "  Fitz  Adam's 
Story,"  of  which  something  will  be  said 
hereafter,  is  the  flowering  of  Yankee  humor 
and  the  visible  soul  of  "  Down  East." 

MARRIAGE  AND  DOMESTIC  LIFE. 

Mr.  Lowell  was  married,  December  26, 
1844,  to  Miss  Maria  "White  of  Watertown, 
near  Cambridge.  His  domestic  life  at  Elm- 
wood,  like  the  "peace  that  passeth  under 
standing,"  could  be  described  only  in  simile. 
It  was  ideally  beautiful,  and  nothing  was 
wanting  to  perfect  happiness  but  the  sense  of 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  55 

permanence.  Mrs.  Lowell  was  a  lovely  and 
accomplished  woman,  but  was  never  very 
strong,  and  her  ethereal  beauty  seemed  too 
delicate  for  the  climate  of  New  England. 
Children  were  born  to  them,  but  all  died 
in  infancy,  excepting  a  daughter  (now  Mrs. 
Edward  Burnett).  Friends  of  the  poet,  who 
were  admitted  to  the  study  in  the  upper 
chamber,  remember  the  pairs  of  baby  shoes 
that  hung  over  a  picture-frame.  From  the 
shoes  out  through  the  southwest  window  to 
the  resting-place  of  the  dear  little  feet  in 
Mount  Auburn  there  was  •  but  a  glance,  —  a 
tender,  mournful  association,  full  of  unavail 
ing  grief,  but  never  expressed  in  words. 
Poems  written  in  this  period  show  the  depth 
of  parental  feeling.  Readers  remember  "  The 
Changeling"  and  "  She  Came  and  Went." 

"  As  a  twig  trembles,  which  a  bird 

Lights  on  to  sing,  then  leaves  unbent, 
So  is  my  memory  thrilled  and  stirred;  — 
I  only  know  she  came  and  went." 

Mrs.  Lowell  was  a  writer  of  sweet   and 


56  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

beautiful  verse.  One  of  her  poems,  "The 
Alpine  Sheep,"  addressed  to  a  sorrowful 
mother,  was  suggested  by  her  own  bereave 
ment 

"  They  in  the  valley's  sheltering  care 

Soon  crop  the  meadow's  tender  prime, 
And  when  the  sod  grows  brown  and  bare 
The  shepherd  strives  to  make  them  climb 

"  To  airy  shelves  of  pasture  green 

That  hang  along  the  mountain's  side, 
Where  grass  and  flowers  together  lean, 

And  down  through  mist  the  sunbeams  slide. 

"But  nought  can  tempt  the  timid  things 

The  steep  and  rugged  paths  to  try, 
Though  sweet  the  shepherd  calls  and  sings, 
And  seared  below  the  pastures  lie, 

"  Till  in  his  arms  their  lambs  he  takes 

Along  the  dizzy  verge  to  go: 
Then,  heedless  of  the  rifts  and  breaks, 
They  follow  on,  o'er  rock  and  snow. 

"  And  in  those  pastures,  lifted  fair, 

More  dewy-soft  than  lowland  mead, 
The  shepherd  drops  his  tender  care, 
And  sheep  and  lambs  together  feed." 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  57 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lowell  went  to  Europe  in 
a  sailing  vessel  in  the  summer  of  1851,  and 
spent  a  year,  visiting  Switzerland,  France, 
and  England,  but  living  for  the  most  part 
in  Italy.  They  returned  in  the  autumn  of 
1852.  Mrs.  Lowell  was  slowly,  almost  im 
perceptibly,  declining.  Her  fine  powers  were 
almost  spiritualized,  and  the  loveliness  of  her 
nature  suffered  no  change  by  disease. 

"  A  blissful  vision  through  the  night 
Would  all  my  happy  senses  sway 
Of  the  good  Shepherd  on  the  height, 
Or  climbing  up  the  starry  way, 

"  Holding  our  little  lamb  asleep,  — 

While,  like  the  murmur  of  the  sea, 
Sounded  that  voice  along  the  deep, 
Saying,  '  Arise  and  follow  me! ' " 

The  end  came  in  October,  1853,  when  like 
a  breath  her  soul  was  exhaled. 

Nine  years  of  wedded  life  had  passed,  with 
loss  and  sorrow,  and  often  clouded  with 
apprehension,  but  blessed  also  by  the  ten- 
derest  joys  permitted  to  mortals. 


58  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

On  the  day  of  Mrs.  Lowell's  death  a  child 
was  born  to  Mr.  Longfellow,  and  his  poem, 
"The  Two  Angels,"  perhaps  as  perfect  a 
specimen  of  his  genius  as  can  be  cited,  will 
remain  forever  as  a  most  touching  expression 
of  sympathy. 

"  'T  was  at  thy  door,  O  friend !  and  not  at  mine, 

The  angel  with  the  amaranthine  wreath, 
Pausing,  descended,  and  with  voice  divine 
Whispered  a  word  that  had  a  sound  like  Death. 

'•  Then  fell  upon  the  house  a  sudden  gloom, 

A  shadow  on  those  features  fair  and  thin; 
And  softly,  from  that  hushed  and  darkened  room, 
Two  angels  issued,  where  but  one  went  in." 

Mrs.  Lowell's  poems  were  collected  and 
privately  printed  in  a  memorial  volume,  with 
a  photograph  from  Page's  portrait ;  but  many 
of  them  have  been  widely  copied  and  be 
come  a  part  of  our  literature. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  59 


THE  VISION   OF  SIR  LAUNFAL. 

After  the  brilliant  success  of  the  "  Biglow 
Papers,"  it  might  have  been  supposed  that 
Lowell  would  have  continued  to  produce 
comic  verses ;  but  it  would  seem  that  he  had 
not  been  satisfied  with  his  early  serious 
poetry,  and  was  conscious  of  the  power  of 
accomplishing  better  results.  His  next  im 
portant  effort  was  "  The  Vision  of  Sir  Laun- 
fal,"  a  noble  poem,  full  of  natural  beauty  and 
animated  by  high  Christian  feeling.  This 
was  composed  in  a  kind  of  fury,  substantially 
as  it  now  appears,  in  the  space  of  about  forty- 
eight  hours,  during  which  time  the  poet 
scarcely  ate  or  slept.  It  was  almost  an  im 
provisation,  and  its  effect  upon  the  reader  is 
like  that  of  the  outburst  of  an  inspired  singer. 
The  effect  upon  the  public  was  immediate 
and  powerful ;  the  poem  needed  no  herald 
nor  interpreter.  In  later  poems  we  may  ob 
serve  more  highly  wrought  imagery,,  more 


60  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

Dantesque  suggestion,  and  more  philosophic 
depth ;  but  "  Sir  Launfal "  is  still  the  poem 
most  admired  by  general  readers,  and  it  is 
the  one  that  best  shows  the  poet's  fresh  and 
exuberant  feeling,  his  native  piety,  and  his 
glowing  sense  of  beauty.  Every  summer 
the  newspapers  remind  us  how  "  rare "  is 
"  a  day  in  JuneJ'  and  every  winter  we  read 
how 

"  Down  swept  the  chill  wind  from  the  mountain  peak, 
From  the  snow  five  thousand  summers  old." 

The  preludes  of  the  two  movements  of  the 
poem  have  become  typical  in  the  minds  of 
our  generation. 

About  the  same  period  came  "The  Pre 
sent  Crisis,"  an  ardent  poem,  in  a  high, 
prophetic  strain,  and  in  strongly  sonorous 
measure.  This  has  been  often  quoted  by 
public-speakers,  and  many  of  its  lines  are 
as  familiar  as  the  most  trenchant  of  the 
Proverbs :  — 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  61 

"By  the  light  of  burning  heretics1  Christ's  bleeding  feet  I 
track." 

"  Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold,  Wrong  forever  on  the  throne." 

"  Then  to  side  with  Truth  is  noble  when  we  share  her  wretched 
crust." 

"  For  Humanity  sweeps  onward  :  where  to-day  the  martyr 

stands, 
On  the  morrow  crouches  Judas  with  the  silver  in  his  hands." 

But  the  whole  poem  is  a  Giant's-Cause- 
way  group  of  columnar  verses.  It  is  a  pity 
to  pry  out  specimens ;  they  stand  better  to 
gether. 

Mention  should  be  made  of  "  Ambrose," 
a  beautiful  legend,  with  a  lesson  of  tolera 
tion;  of  " The  Dandelion"  and  "  The  Birch 
Tree,"  both  charming  pictures,  and  already 
hung  in  the  gallery  of  fame;  and  of  "An 
Interview  with  Miles  Standish,"  a  strong 
piece  of  portraiture,  with  a  political  moral. 
But  of  the  poems  of  this  period,  the  most 
artistic  is  "  Beaver  Brook."  There  is  no 
finer  specimen  of  an  ideal  landscape  in  mod- 

1  Observe  that  Thomas  Hughes  has  not  quoted  this  cor 
rectly,  but  has  printed  "martyrs"  for  "heretics." 


62  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

ern  verse,  —  a  specimen  rich  enough  in  its 
suggestions  to  serve  as  an  object-lesson  upon 
the  poetic  art.  Beaver  Brook,  whose  valley 
was  a  favorite  haunt  of  the  poet,  is  a  small 
stream  in  the  present  limits  of  the  town  of 
Belmont,  a  few  miles  from  Ehmvood,  not 
far  from  Waverley  Station.  The  mill  exists 
no  longer,  but  one  of  the  foundation  walls 
makes  a  frame  on  one  side  for  the  pretty  cas 
cade  of 

"  Armfuls  of  diamond  and  of  pearl," 

that  descends  into  the  "  valley's  cup."  Not 
far  below  is  a  pasture,  in  which  are  the 
well-known  Waverley  Oaks,  one  of  the  few 
groups  of  aboriginal  trees  now  standing  near 
the  Massachusetts  coast.  If  a  bull  be  per 
mitted,  the  largest  of  the  oaks  is  an  elm,  now 
unhappily  dying  at  the  roots.  This  tree  has 
a  straight-out  spread  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet,  —  sixty  feet  from  the  giant  trunk 
each  way  The  oaks  are  seven  or  eight  in 
number,  as  like  as  so  many  stout  brothers, 
planted  on  sloping  dunes  west  of  the  brook. 


A   BIOGRAPHfcAL   SKETCH.  63 

They  have  a  human,  resolute  air.  Their 
great  arms  look  as  if  ready  to  "  hit  out 
from  the  shoulder."  Elms  have  their  grace 
ful  ways,  willows  their  pensive  attitudes,  firs 
their  loneliness,  but  the  aboriginal  oaks  ex 
press  the  strength  and  the  rugged  endurance 
of  nature.  The  oaks  have  been  often  painted, 
but  there  are  many  ways  of  looking  at  them, 
all  equally  charming. 

HE  ATTEMPTS  SATIRE. 

Mr.  Lowell's  next  venture  was  again  in 
the  field  of  satire.  "  A  Fable  for  Critics,"  — 

"  A  Glance  at  a  Few  of  our  Literary  Progenies 
(Mrs.  Malaprop's  word)  from  the  Tub  of  Diogenes,"  — 

was 

"  Set  forth  in  October,  the  31st  day, 
In  the  year  '48,  G.  P.  Putnam,  Broadway." 

As  one  looks  back, — for  1848,  though 
it  seems  but  yesterday  to  some  of  us,  was 
really  a  great  while  ago,  —  one  hardly  knows 
whether  to  be  more  amazed  at  the  audacity 


64  JAMES  RUS&ELL  LOWELL. 

or  the  brilliancy  of  this  elaborate  jeu  (Tesprit. 
The  preface  declares :  — 

"I  began  it,  intending  a  Fable,  a  frail,  slender 
thing,  rhymey-winged,  with  a  sting  in  his  tail." 

There  was  no  doubt  about  the  sting  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  felt  it ;  but  private 
grievances  have  been  forgotten,  except  per 
haps  by  the  friends  of  a  celebrated  woman 
between  whose  renown  and  whose  works 
there  remains  an  unaccountable  discrepancy. 
To  bring  up  the  representative  authors  of  a 
vain  and  touchy  people  for  censure  (using 
the  word  in  its  broad  original  meaning)  was 
an  undertaking  of  some  difficulty  and  deli 
cacy.  But  when  allowance  is  made  for  the 
humorous  and  sportive  tone  of  the  Fable, 
and  we  get  at  the  real  critical  opinions, 
either  singly  or  in  mass,  it  is  surprising  to 
see  how  the  poet  anticipated  the  taste  of 
the  coming  generation,  and  how  sound  and 
appreciative,  according  to  present  standards, 
his  judgments  are.  Naturally  there  may  be 


BEAVER  BROOK. 

Sec  page  61 . 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  65 

undue  warmth  here  and  a  shade  of  coolness 
there,  but  there  is  a  general  equity  and  candor. 
And  we  must  remember  that,  by  and  by,  the 
honeyed  compliments  that  are  exchanged  be 
tween  living  writers  are  to  be  forgotten,  — 
that  poems  and  histories  are  to  be  scrutinized 
like  coins  by  money-changers,  and  reckoned 
at  their  just  value  and  no  more,  and  that 
then  will  begin  the  havoc  with  reputations 
now  fortified  behind  friendly  reviews  and 
journals,  and  fostered  by  social,  political, 
and  religious  cliques.  Not  one  in  ten  of  the 
popular  writers  of  an  epoch  can  hope  to  be 
remembered  and  read  by  the  next ;  and  it 
will  be  found  hereafter  that  Lowell's  Apollo 
was  perhaps  more  generous  than  severe  in 
his  comments  upon  the  literary  procession. 

The  Fable  is  as  full  of  puns  as  a  pudding 
of  plums.  The  good  ones  are  the  best  of 
their  kind,  strung  together  like  beads,  and 
the  bad  ones  are  so  "  atrocious "  as  to  be 
quite  as  amusing.  Materials  for  any  number 
of  Hoods  exist  in  it.  Verbal  sparkles  catch 


66  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

the  eyes  of  youth ;  but  those  who  see  deeper 
find  vigorous  good  sense,  power  of  analysis 
and  illustration,  as  well  as  manly  indepen 
dence  and  just  national  pride,  such  as  few 
comic  poets  possess.  The  successive  pages 
seem  like  a  series  of  portraits,  done  by  an 
artist  who  knows  how  to  seize  upon  the 
strong  points  of  likeness  and  avoid  carica 
ture  ;  and  that  is  to  produce  living  pictures 
in  the  style  of  the  masters. 

The  reader  who  has  had  his  volume  by 
him  since  that  thirty-first  of  October  knows 
it  by  heart ;  the  judgments  are  established, 
and  their  curious  felicity  of  phrase  always 
haunts  the  memory.  Emerson,  for  example, 
is  the  subject  of  a  keen  and  almost  per 
fect  characterization.  If  the  satirist  laughs 
(as  he  may),  the  reader  hesitates  to  join  in 
the  mirth ;  for  he  feels  the  resistless  force,  and 
sees  that  the  gayety  is  only  the  myrtle  bough 
that  covers  a  sword.  Similar  praise  may  be 
given  to  the  powerful  sketch  of  Theodore 
Parker,  although  that  great  preacher  was 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  67 

more  tender  and  more  profoundly  religious 
than  lie  appears  in  Lowell's  verse.  Alcott, 
"  calm  as  a  cloud,"  and  the  graceful  Willis 
are  happy  specimens.  To  Bryant  the  satirist 
is  perhaps  scarcely  just, —  although  the  cold 
ness  of  that  great  poet's  passive  muse,  and 
the  want  of  elasticity  and  sympathy  in  his 
nature,  must  be  acknowledged.  There  is 
more  enthusiasm  in  the  picture  of 

"Whittier,  whose  swelling  and  vehement  heart 
Strains  the  strait-breasted  drab  of  the  Quaker  apart." 

The  lyrical  fervor  of  the  verses  harmonizes 
with  the  conception  of  the  beloved  and  ven 
erated  bard. 

Hawthorne  is  limned  with  touches  so  fine 
and  aerial  that  one  scarcely  sees  how  it  is 
done ;  yet  the  likeness  and  the  style  are  in 
imitable.  It  is  a  delicate  tribute  from  one  of 
the  first  of  poets  to  the  most  original  and 
imaginative  of  romancers.  The  estimate  of 
Cooper,  if  not  wholly  complimentary,  is  mag 
nificently  wrought.  The  lines  are  imbedded 
in  thought,  and  resist  change  and  time. 


68  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

One  of  the  most  charming  of  these  (appar 
ently)  off-hand  descriptions  is  that  of  Philo- 
thea,  Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child,  the  ablest 
woman  in  America  in  her  prime.  There  is 
an  airy  lightness  in  the  treatment  of  this 
author  that  has  the  effect  of  wit  in  action. 
The  tale  of  the  "  marvellous  aloe  "  is  a  suffi 
cient  instance  of  the  genius  of  the  author. 
Imagine  a  commonplace  writer  attempting  to 
fashion  such  an  illusory  legend ! 

For  Irving  and  for  Poe  perhaps  Lowell's 
Apollo  is  no  more  than  just;  and  as  for 
Judd,  although  his  (neglected)  "  Margaret" 
is  a  work  of  genius,  probably  our  author 
means  to  assert  what  his  fame  should  have 
been,  rather  than  what  it  is.  Holmes  and 
Longfellow  are  generously  mentioned,  and 
Lowell's  own  verse  comes  in  for  ironical  com 
pliment. 

The  character  of  "  Miranda"  has  been  sup 
posed  by  some  to  be  intended  as  a  caricature 
of  Margaret  Fuller.  If  this  were  true,  it 
would  be  an  instance  of  unusual  severity,  for 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  69 

the  passages  in  which  "  Miranda "  figures, 
though  among  the  most  amusing,  are  terribly 
sarcastic.  Such  a  woman  as  the  Minerva  of 
the  Fable,  if  there  were  one,  might  fully 
deserve  the  treatment.  Miss  Fuller  never 
minced  her  words,  and  she  always  scorned 
the  shelter  of  sex ;  but,  though  she  had  some 
traits  that  drew  upon  her  as  much  censure  as 
compliment,  it  is  not  at  all  probable  that 
"  Miranda "  was  drawn  for  her,  any  more 
than  the  sketch  of  the  dull  and  pedantic 
reviewer  was  intended  for  a  well-known 
Harvard  professor.  "Miranda"  is  undoubt 
edly  an  imaginary  female  literary  bore. 

Of  the  various  episodes  there  is  no  room 
to  write.  Readers  will  see  that  the  poet  was 
still  zealous  for  human  rights,  strongly  op 
posed  to  the  horrors  of  capital  punishment, 
and  energetic  in  upholding  the  honor  of  the 
republic  of  letters.  And  all  who  trace  their 
origin  from  Pilgrim  or  Puritan  ancestry  will 
feel  a  new  thrill  of  pride  in  the  glowing 
apostrophe  to  Massachusetts  with  which  the 
poem  ends. 


70  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

The  Fable  appeared  anonymously,  but 
such  a  secret  could  not  be  kept.  When 
people  had  time  to  think  about  it,  it  was 
evident  that  no  other  American  could  have 
written  it.  No  poem  of  the  kind  in  the  lan 
guage  equals  it  in  the  two  aspects  of  vivid 
genius  and  riotous  fun.  The  Fable  careers 
like  an  ice-boat.  Breezes  fill  the  light  sails, 
as  if  toying  with  them ;  but  the  course  is  like 
lightning,  and  every  movement  answers  to 
the  touch  of  the  helm. 

No  British  poet  has  equalled  it.  Think  of 
the  dirt  of  the  Dunciad  and  the  whooping 
savagery  of  the  English  Bards  and  Scotch 
Reviewers!  Yet  "  Eraser's  Magazine"  consid 
ered  the  Fable  as  "  clever  doggerel." 

But  when  the  Fable  is  calmly  surveyed, 
though  we  admit  the  fervid  genius  that  ani 
mates  it,  and  though  we  are  sure  that  no 
other  poet  could  have  written  it,  or  ap 
proached  it  in  comic  or  serious  power  and 
swiftness,  still  we  must  see  that  it  carries 
along  like  a  flood  a  considerable  burden  of 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  71 

"  inconsidered  trifles."  There  is  a  lack  of 
proportion  and  of  just  treatment  here  and 
there  which  might  have  been  remedied  by  the 
labor  of  revision.  It  seems  like  an  off-hand 
sketch,  with  all  the  brilliant  points  and  some 
of  the  defects  that  characterize  first  thoughts 
hurriedly  set  down. 

COLLECTED  POEMS.  —  UNIVERSITY  LECTURES. 

In  1849  Mr.  Lowell's  poems  were  collected 
in  two  volumes ;  the  "  Biglow  Papers,''  "  A 
Fable  for  Critics,"  and  "  A  Year's  Life  "  were 
not  included.  In  1853,  and  for  some  years 
afterwards,  he  was  a  frequent  contributor  to 
"Putnam's  Monthly,"  conducted  by  George 
William  Curtis  and  Charles  F.  Briggs.  Some 
of  his  finest  productions,  both  in  prose  and 
verse,  appeared  in  that  brilliant  periodical. 
In  the  winter  of  1854-55  he  delivered  a  course 
of  twelve  lectures  on  English  poetry,  in  the 
Lowell  Institute.  The  lectures  made  a  deep 
impression  upon  cultivated  auditors,  and  full 


72  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

reports  of  them  were  printed  in  the  Boston 
"  Advertiser."  Their  success  was  due  to  their 
intrinsic  merits.  The  popular  lecturer  is  often 
led  to  imitate  the  vehement  action  of  a  stum}) 
orator  and  the  drollery  of  a  comedian  by 
turns.  Mr.  Lowell's  pronunciation  is  clear 
and  precise,  and  the  modulations  of  his  voice 
unstudied  and  agreeable ;  but  he  seldom,  if 
ever,  raised  a  hand  for  gesticulation,  and  his 
voice  was  kept  in  its  natural  compass.  He 
read  like  one  who  had  something  of  impor 
tance  to  utter,  and  the  just  emphasis  was  felt 
in  the  penetrating  tone.  There  were  no 
oratorical  climaxes,  and  no  pitfalls  set  for 
applause.  But  the  weighty  thoughts,  the  ear 
nest  feeling,  and  the  brilliant  poetical  images 
gave  to  every  discourse  an  indescribable 
charm.  The  younger  portion  of  the  audi 
ence,  especially,  enjoyed  a  feast  for  which 
all  the  study  of  their  lives  had  been  a  prepa 
ration. 

It  is  probable  that  by  this  time  our  poet 
had  begun  to  think  of  some  connection  with 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  73 

the  University.  The  illustrious  professor  of 
belles  lettres,  it  was  known,  desired  to  retire 
from  the  chair,  and  public  opinion  pointed  to 
Lowell  as  a  proper  person  for  his  successor. 
In  the  summer  of  1854  Mr.  Longfellow  re 
signed,  and  ]Vlr-  Lowell  was  appointed  in  his 
place,  with  leave  of  absence  for  two  years. 
He  went  to  Europe  to  pursue  his  studies,  and 
remained  abroad,  chiefly  in  Dresden,  until 
the  spring  of  1857,  when  he  returned  and 
began  his  courses  of  lectures.  No  profes 
sor  was  ever  more  popular  with  his  classes. 
Students  speak  of  him  always  in  terms  of 
admiration  and  love.  His  lectures  upon 
Dante,  Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  and  Cervantes, 
in  particular,  have  made  an  ineffaceable  im 
pression  upon  the  scholars  of  Harvard. 

In  the  two  years  of  residence  abroad,  he 
had  time  for  much  methodical  reading,  par 
ticularly  in  the  literatures  of  modern  Europe ; 
but,  in  truth,  the  studies  which  made  him  a 
distinguished  scholar  had  been  begun  long 
before,  and  have  been  pursued  ever  since. 


74  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

His  power  of  assimilation  lias  been  even 
more  remarkable  than  his  facility  of  acqui 
sition.  The  best  things  in  all  tongues  natu 
rally  gravitated  to  him  ;  and  it  was  difficult 
for  any  but  the  most  curiously  learned  to  say 
whether  he  seemed  more  at  home  with  the 
philosophic  authors  of  Germany,  the  great 
poet  of  Italy,  the  immortal  romancer  of 
Spain,  the  brilliant  wit  and  classic  finish  of 
the  French,  or  with  the  long  line  of  poets, 
chroniclers,  and  thinkers  of  our  old  home. 
His  resources  were  ample  for  almost  any  un 
dertaking.  His  characteristics  as  a  writer  of 
prose  will  be  considered  in  the  proper  place ; 
but  it  may  be  observed  here  that,  along  with 
his  varied  studies,  he  had  early  cultivated, 
unconsciously  perhaps,  a  learned,  rich,  and 
allusive  style,  —  singularly  apt  and  forcible, 
and  teeming  with  poetic  illustrations. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  75 

CONVERSATIONS  ON  THE  POETS. 

The  germs  of  his  literary  criticism  are 
to  be  found  in  his  "  Conversations  on  the 
Poets,"  published  in  his  twenty-fifth  year. 
The  book  is  a  valuable  part  of  his  literary 
biography.  The  sentences  give  an  impres 
sion  of  prolixity  at  first,  not  so  much  of  words 
as  of  teeming,  struggling  thought.  They  at 
test  the  yet  untrained  luxuriance  of  genius. 
The  doctrines  are  of  the  modern  school,  in 
opposition  to  the  formal  antithesis  and  the 
superficial  glitter  of  Pope  and  his  French 
masters,  and  in  favor  of  the  simplicity 
and  vigor  of  the  Elizabethan  authors,  and 
of  Chaucer.  A  good  part  of  the  volume 
is  devoted  to  the  modernization  of  pas 
sages  from  Chaucer,  and  to  comments  upon 
Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Chapman,  Drayton, 
Ford,  Marlowe,  and  other  dramatic  poets. 
Marvell  is  also  a  favorite,  and  Jeremy  Tay 
lor  is  dwelt  upon  with  a  poet's  enthusiasm. 
Of  the  moderns,  he  appears  to  hold  Keats 


76  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

and  Tennyson  in  highest  esteem,  though  the 
strength  and  naturalness  of  Wordsworth  are 
admitted.  We  make  room  for  a  few  sen 
tences  :  — 

"  You  may  claim  for  Pope  the  merit  of  an  envi 
ous  eye,  which  could  turn  the  least  scratch  upon 
the  character  of  a  friend  into  a  fester, — of  a 
nimble  and  adroit  fancy,  and  of  an  ear  so  nig 
gardly  that  it  could  afford  but  one  invariable 
caesura  to  his  verse ;  but  when  you  call  him 
poet,  you  insult  the  buried  majesty  of  all  earth's 
noblest  and  choicest  spirits.  Nature  should  lead 
a  true  poet  by  the  hand,  and  he  has  far  better 
things  to  do  than  to  busy  himself  in  counting  the 
warts  upon  it,  as  Pope  did." 

44  Pope  treated  the  English  language  as  the 
image-man  has  served  the  bust  of  Shakespeare 
yonder.  To  rid  it  of  some  external  soils  he  has 
rubbed  it  down  till  there  is  no  muscular  expres 
sion  left." 

44  A  poet  couljl  not  write  the  4  Dunciad,'  nor 
read  it." 

The  citations  are  given  for  the  opinions, 
not  as  specimens  of  the  style. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  77 

From  the  time  of  the  Conversations  (1845) 
to  that  of  the  first  lectures  (1855)  there  was 
a  marked  change,  but  only  the  change  from 
adolescence  to  manhood.  It  was  the  normal 
development  of  an  active,  original,  and  poetic 
mind.  Even  the  matter  of  the  lectures  un 
derwent  a  change  before  being  presented  to 
the  public,  fifteen  years  later.  Only  a  small 
part  of  the  critical  labors  has  been  printed, 
but  the  most  important  subjects  have  been 
elaborated  into  the  stately  essays  which  form 
the  last  three  volumes  of  prose. 

FIRESIDE   TRAVELS. 

The  volume  of  "  Fireside  Travels,"  con 
taining  the  sketch  of  old  Cambridge  already 
mentioned,  was  published  in  1864.  The  ar 
ticles  were  written  when  Lowell  was  thirty- 
four,  a  mature  young  man,'  chastened  and 
thoughtful,  but  still  joyously  young.  It  was 
the  period  when  fresh  feeling  was  in  the 
ascendant,  and  when  the  poet  had  no  in- 


78  JAMES  RUSSELL   LOWELL. 

clination  to  exchange  the  creative  pencil 
for  the  scalpel  of  the  critic.  There  is  a  tide 
in  the  soul  of  man,  and  it  comes  neither  too 
early  nor  too  late  in  life,  —  a  time  when  the 
poet  or  artist  is  at  his  best,  —  hand  and 
brain  and  heart  at  one.  The  youth  con 
ceives,  but  often  fails  adequately  to  embody 
the  creation.  The  veteran  would  gladly  ful 
fil  his  soul's  behest,  but  the  feeling-  has  gone 
with  the  visions  of  his  morning.  The  en 
thusiasm  and  creative  power  belong  to  young 
blood.  What  the  ardent  youth  achieves  may 
lack  the  maturer  graces,  but  it  will  be  in  his 
springtime,  if  ever,  that  he  will  put  his  ideas 
of  beauty  into  enduring  forms. 

"  Fireside  Travels,"  among  prose  works,  is 
the  product  of  Lowell's  best  days.  It  is  ex 
uberant,  but  not  in  the  least  crude,  In  fact, 
the  art  is  quite  as  remarkable  as  the  fertility. 
Pages  appear  like  the  soil  of  hot-house  beds, 
with  thoughts,  serious,  jocose,  learned,  allu 
sive,  sprouting  everywhere.  It  does  not 
matter  where  the  reader  opens,  for  every 


A    BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  79 

sentence  has  some  salient  or  recondite  charm. 
The  Italian  journals,  the  life  in  the  Maine 
woods,  and  the  reminiscences  of  Cambridge 
are  equally  fascinating.  As  mere  studies  of 
a  highly  ornamented  style  they  are  perfect. 
It  is  true  that  in  graver  essays  Lowell  has 
displayed  more  profundity,  more  learning, 
and  more  grand  figures ;  but  those  who 
know  the  earlier  volume  well  will  surely 
turn  to  it  oftener.  The  sketches  of  President 
Kirkland,  Professors  Popkin  and  Sales,  and 
of  Allston  the  painter,  and  others,  —  all  too 
brief,  —  are  not  only  delightful  in  style,  but 
are  full  of  warm  and  generous  feeling  that 
knits  author  and  reader  henceforth  in  an 
indissoluble  bond.  One  often  wonders,  after 
reading  of  the  Cambridge  dons  for  the  twen 
tieth  time,  where  there  is  to  be  found  another 
essay  like  it.  In  Thackeray's  essays  there 
are  points  of  resemblance.  The  "  Rounda 
bout  Papers,"  "  The  Four  Georges,"  and  the 
"  English  Humorists,"  though  totally  differ 
ent  in  matter  and  in  style,  give  a  similar 


80  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

inward  satisfaction.  A  comfortable  feeling 
remains  long  after  the  verbal  felicities  have 
been  enjoyed  and  passed  out  of  remem 
brance. 

HIS  SECOND  MARRIAGE.  —  THE  "ATLANTIC." 

Two  important  events  in  his  life  occurred 
in  1857.  Mr.  Lowell  was  married  in  Septem 
ber  to  Miss  Frances  Dunlap,  of  Portland, 
Maine,  who  had  had  charge  of  the  education 
of  his  only  daughter  during  his  residence 
abroad.  For  a  time  he  resided  in  Oxford 
Street,  Cambridge,  with  Dr.  Estes  Howe, 
who  had  married  a  sister  of  Maria  White 
Lowell;  but  not  long  after  he  returned  to 
Elmwood. 

In  November,  "The  Atlantic  Monthly" 
was  started  under  the  auspices  of  the  chief 
authors  of  New  England,  with  Mr.  Lowell  as 
editor-in-chief.  One  purpose  of  the  maga 
zine  was  to  give  the  active  support  of  letters 
to  the  anti-slavery  cause,  and  in  this  respect 
its  position  was  decided.  Before  this  there 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  81 

was  no  popular  magazine  with  positive  opin 
ions.  The  editor's  contributions  were  both 
in  prose  and  verse,  and  were -conspicuous  for 
•  their  force,  and  often  for  their  pungent  wit. 
At  the  beginning,  the  political  articles  were 
written  by  an  eminent  author  of  New  York, 
but  after  a  time  the  department  was  managed 
by  the  editor  alone. 

In  less  than  two  years  from  the  time  the 
"  Atlantic  "  was  started,  both  the  senior  mem 
bers  of  the  publishing  house,  Messrs.  Phillips, 
Sampson,  &  Co.,  died,  and  the  magazine 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Ticknor  & 
Fields.  Mr.  Lowell  continued  as  editor  until 
1862.  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Fields. 

In  the  first  three  volumes  there  are  a  few 
notable  articles  from  Lowell,  including  two 
of  a  political  character,  entitled  "A  Pocket 
Celebration  of  the  Fourth,"  and  "  A  Sample 
of  Consistency."  Among  the  poems  may  be 
mentioned  "The  Dead  House,"  —  one  that 
no  reader  ever  forgets.  It  appears  to  have 
haunted  the  memory  of  some  poets  also. 

6 


82  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

"The  Origin  of  Didactic  Poetry,"  in  the  first 
number,  is  an  amusing  fable,  in  the  poet's 
happiest  vein.  Several  fine  poems  appeared 
in  the  first  volume,  among  them  "  The  Nest," 
which  does  not  appear  in  the  "complete" 
collection. 

As  Lowell  was  never  given  to  the  pro 
duction  of  merely  fanciful  verses,  —  the  very 
lightest  of  his  thistledowns  having  some  seed 
in  them,  —  and  as  his  mind  always  moved  to 
the  tides  in  the  ocean  of  human  thought  and 
feeling,  it  will  not  appear  strange  that  the 
great  events  following  the  election  of  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  gave  a  new  direction  to  his  ac 
tive  faculties.  In  feeling,  as  before  observed, 
he  is  primarily  a  poet;  but  he  is  also,  like 
Milton,  a  thinker,  with  a  fund  of  uncommon 
practical  sense,  and  as  much  of  a  man  of 
action  as  any  retired  scholar  can  be.  The 
topsails  may  fill  or  flutter  in  celestial  airs 
while  the  hull  struggles  in  the  heaving  sea. 

In  earlier  days  there  were  dreams  of  the 
peaceful  solution  of  all  controversies ;  swords 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  83 

were  to  be  beaten  into  ploughshares ;  kings 
and  nobles  were  to  be  submerged  in  the  ris 
ing  tide  of  humanity.  "  Round  the  earth's 
electric  circle"  went  the  flash  of  sympathy. 
The  young  Victor  Hugos  of  Heidelberg  and 
Jena,  Paris  and  Bologna,  Berlin  and  London, 
were  in  accord.  Conservatism  was  fright 
ened  :  the  millennium  was  coming ;  the  doc 
trines  of  American  democracy  were  to  have 
a  generous,  practical  illustration  in  the  gov 
ernments  of  enlightened  nations.  Literature 
was  animated  by  a  high  philanthropic  spirit. 

The  poetry  of  the  new  school  was  as  pure 
as  the  Gospels,  and  as  uncompromising  as  the 
early  church.  Brook  Farm,  with  its  aesthetic 
communism,  had  been  one  of  the  signs  of  the 
times,  — a  precursor,  it  was  hoped,  of  Arca 
dian  days  to  come.  Plainness  in  dress  pre 
vailed,  even  among  the  rich  and  delicately 
bred.  Lowell's  youthful  portrait,  by  Page, 
represents  him  in  a  coarse  brown  coat,  with 
his  broad  shirt-collar  turned  down,  and  with 
long  hair,  parted  at  the  centre  of  the  forehead, 


84  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

and  hanging  in  careless  grace  upon  ruddy 
and  wind-tanned  cheeks.  The  poetry  of  the 
picture  is  in  the  calm  and  dreamy  eyes,  look 
ing  out  of  a  shadow  of  bronze  mist. 

But  the  time  of  boundless  hope  for  human 
ity  went  by,  and  after  the  reaction  the  con 
servatives  were  stronger  than  ever  before. 
In  this  country  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  was  the  answer  to  the  efforts  of 
the  abolitionists.  When  the  contest  between 
North  and  South  was  settled,  as  far  as  bal 
lots  could  do  it,  by  the  election  of  Lincoln, 
the  struggle  was  immediately  transferred  to 
the  field,  and  for  four  years  the  power  and 
endurance  of  the  two  sections  were  tried  to 
the  uttermost.  The  rebellion  surprised  most 
people,  but  wise  observers  had  long  seen  its 
approaching  shadow.  A  Massachusetts  gov 
ernor  procured  military  overcoats  months 
before  the  rattle  of  drums  was  heard. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  85 

HOSEA  BIGLOW  AGAIN. 

The  "  Atlantic  "  had  a  number  of  vigorous 
political  articles  in  prose,  and,  a  few  months 
after  the  outbreak,  Lowell  again  set  up  the 
simple  Biglow  stage  with  the  old  dramatis 
persona  to  ridicule  secession.  The  first  at 
tempt  was  an  epistle  in  rhyme  from  the 
veteran  Birdofreduni  Sawin  to  Hosea.  The 
hero  of  the  Mexican  war  had  become  a 
Southerner,  —  had  been  tarred  and  feath 
ered  (perhaps  by  way  of  acclimatization),  — 
had  been  in  the  State's  Prison  on  a  ground 
less  charge,  and  on  his  release  had  married 
a  widow,  the  owner  of  slaves.  He  had 
therefore  reached  an  eminence  from  which 
he  could  look  down  on  the  " mudsills"  of 
his  native  State. 

"  'Nough  said,  thet,  arter  lookin'  roun',  I  liked  the  place  so  wal, 
Where  niggers  doos  a  double  good,  with  us  atop  to  stiddy  'em, 
By  bein'  proofs  o'  prophecy  an'  suckleatin'  medium, 
Where  a  man 's  sunthin'  coz  he 's  white,  an'  whiskey  's  cheap 

ez  fleas, 
An'  the  financial  pollercy  jes'  sooted  my  idees, 


86  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

Tbet  I  friz  down  right  where  I  wuz,  tuerried  the  Widder 

Shennon, 
(Her  thirds  wuz  part  in  cotton-land,  part  in  the  curse  o' 

Canaan,) 

An'  here  I  be  ez  lively  ez  a  chipmunk  on  a  wall, 
With  notliin'  to  feel  riled  about  much  later  'n  Eddam's  fall." 

The  correspondent  desires  that  Hosea 
should  break  the  news  of  his  Southern  mar 
riage  to  the  wife  he  had  left  behind. 

"  I  want  thet  you  should  grad'lly  break  my  merriage  to  Jerushy, 
An'  there 's  a  heap  of  argymunts  thet  'a  emple  to  indooce  ye  : 
Fust  place,  State's  Prison,  —  wal,  it  'a  true  it  warn't  for 

crime,  o'  course, 

But  then  it 's  jest  the  same  fer  her  in  gittin'  a  disrorce  ; 
Nex'  place,  my  State's  secedin'  out  hez  leg'lly  leP  me  free 
To  merry  any  one  I  please,  pervidin'  it 's  a  she  ; 
Fin'lly,  I  never  wun't  come  back  ;  she  need  n't  hev  no  fear 

on't, 
But  then  it 's  wal  to  fix  things  right,  fer  fear  Miss  S.  should 

hear  on 't ; 

Lastly,  I  Ve  gut  religion  South,  an'  Rushy  she  's  a  pagan 
Thet  sets  by  th'  graven  imiges  o'  the  gret  Nothun  Dagon  ; 

An'  ef  J.  wants  a  stronger  pint  than  them  thet  I  hev  stated, 
Wy,  she  's  an  aliun  in'tny  now,  an'  I  've  been  corn fisca ted." 

The  light  and  mocking  tone  of  this  epistle 
is  in  strong  contrast  with  the  deep  and 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  87 

almost  passionate  feeling  that  breathes  in 
the  later  poems  of  the  series.  In  the  sum 
mer  and  autumn  of  1861  people  thought  the 
campaign  was  to  be  something  like  a  picnic 
excursion. 

JONATHAN  TO  JOHN. 

The  capture  of  the  rebel  commissioners, 
Mason  and  Slidell,  by  Commodore  Wilkes, 
— -  a  resolute  and  truly  British  proceeding,  — 
though  in  violation  of  the  law  of  nations, 
will  forever  endear  his  name  to  the  American 
people.  None  but  lawyers  will  consider  the 
persons  of  those  emissaries  more  sacred  than 
spies  or  munitions  of  war.  Still  we  must 
approve  the  cautious  policy,  or  the  magna 
nimity  of  Lincoln, — whichever  it  was,  — that 
decided  upon  returning  the  two  white  ele 
phants.  The  surrender,  however,  was  a 
great  trial  to  pride,  particularly  in  the  East 
ern  States,  where  the  memory  of  England's 
arrogant  assumption  of  sovereignty  on  the 
seas  was  still  rankling.  Lowell  has,  prob- 


88  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

ably,  better  than  any  one,  expressed  this 
mingled  feeling  in  his  famous  "  Yankee 
Idyll."  The  .preface  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wil 
bur  shows  that  gentleman  at  his  best  It 
is  worth  all  the  starched  formality  of  the 
State  papers  on  the  subject;  for  it  puts  the 
case  to  the  British  ministry  in  a  way  that 
leaves  its  unfriendliness,  in  recognizing  the 
rebels  as  belligerents  and  in  fitting  out  priva 
teers,  without  even  the  rags  of  hypocrisy  to 
cover  it.  In  this  unaccredited  despatch  Earl 
Russell  might  read  the  sentiments  of  the 
indignant  Northern  people.  The  style  of 
the  preface  is  curiously  apt.  The  Latin 
quotations  are  numerous,  as  usual,  and  the 
pungent  phrases  have  an  unstudied  air,  as 
if  pugnacity  were  as  natural  as  breathing. 
But  under  the  equable  flow  of  discourse  one 
feels  there  is  a  patriotic  tire  that  burns  un- 
quenchably. 

International  law  has  gained  by  the  con 
troversy.  The  English  ministers  were  right 
and  the  Commodore  was  wrong ;  but  Wilkes 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  89 

is  a  hero  forevermore,  and  Earl  Russell  and 
his  associates  are  accomplices  in  a  national 
crime. 

In  the  stern  Idyl  that  follows,  the  talk 
between  Concord  Bridge  and  Bunker  Hill 
Monument  sounds  like  the  click  between 
flint  and  steel.  Concord  expresses  the  natu 
ral  wrath  of  the  nation ;  Bunker  Hill  its 
calm  reason  and  wise  policy.  The  Bridge 
calls  up  old  grievances  :  — 

"  J  recollect  how  sailors'  rights  was  won, 
Yard  locked  in  yard,  hot  gun-lip  kissin'  gun. 

Better  thet  all  our  ships  an'  all  their  crews 
Should  sink  to  rot  in  ocean's  dreamless  ooze, 


Than  seek  sech  peace  ez  only  cowards  crave  : 
Give  me  the  peace  of  dead  men  or  of  brave  !  " 

Hosea,  we  see,  grows  oratorical,  but  the 
heart  forgives  the  swelling  tone  when  such 
a  feeling  inspires  it. 

The  Bridge  keeps  a  little  ahead  in  the  dis 
cussion,  as  anger  generally  outruns  prudence ; 
and  there  follows  a  terrible  arraignment  of 


90  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

the  English  before  the  tribunal  of  the  nations. 
Those  who  lived  as  mature  men  and  women 
in  those  times  well  remember  the  thrilling 
apostrophe  with  which  the  poem  concludes. 
The  dialect  is  unchanged,  but  it  flows  with 
resistless  energy.  The  poet  has  transmuted 
each  rustic  phrase  into  a  fiery  symbol,  and 
the  images  loom  up,  majestic  as  the  home 
spun  heroes  he  celebrates. 

"  0  strange  New  World,  tbet  yit  wast  never  young, 
Whose  youth  from  thee  by  gripin'  need  w.is  wrung, 
Brown  foundlin'  o*  the  woods,  whose  baby-bed 
Was  prowled  roun'  by  the  Injun's  cracklin'  tread, 
An'  who  grew*6t  strong  thru  shifts  an'  wants  an'  pains, 
Nussed  by  stern  men  with  empires  in  their  brains, 

Thou,  skilled  by  Freedom  an'  by  gret  events 

To  pitch  new  States  ez  Old-World  men  pitch  tents, 

Thou,  taught  by  Fate  to  know  Jehovah's  plan 

Thet  man's  devices  can't  unmake  a  man, 

An'  whose  free  latch-string  never  was  drawed  in 

Against  the  poorest  child  of  Adam's  kin,  — 

The  grave  's  not  dug  where  traitor  hands  shall  lay 

In  fearful  haste  thy  murdered  corse  away  !  " 

Then  came  the  impressive  ballad,  in  which 
all  the  force  of  the  preceding  argument  was 
fused  into  a  passionate  deprecation. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  91 

"  It  don't  seem  hardly  right,  John, 
When  both  my  hands  was  full, 
To  stump  me  to  a  fight,  John,  — 
Your  cousin,  tu,  John  Bull  1 
Ole  Uncle  S.  sez  he,  '  I  guess 
We  know  it  now,'  sez  he, 
'  The  lion's  paw  is  all  the  law, 
Accordin'  to  J.  B., 
Thet  's  fit  for  you  an'  me ! ' 

"  Shall  it  be  love,  or  hate,  John  ? 

It 's  you  thet  's  to  decide  ; 
Ain't  your  bonds  held  by  Fate,  John, 
Like  all  the  world's  beside? 
Ole  Uncle  S.  sez  he,  '  I  guess 
Wise  men  forgive,'  sez  he, 
'  But  not  forget ;  an*  some  time  yet 
Thet  truth  may  strike  J.  B., 
Ez  wal  ez  you  an'  me.' " 

FAME. 

The  satires  of  Hosea  Biglow  had  been 
appreciated  by  anti-slavery  men  and  by 
judges  of  poetic  art, — a  very  select  com 
pany  in  any  age, — but  the  ballad  "  Jona 
than  to  John,"  appealing  to  a  natural  patriotic 
pride,  became  immediately  popular.  Party 


92  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 

dissensions  were  stilled  during  the  awful 
struggle  for  national  existence,  and  though 
England  was  knit  to  us  by  ties  of  kindred 
and  by  a  community  of  letters  and  laws, 
there  was  no  one  to  defend  her  course  in 
any  Northern  State.  The  statement  of  our 
country's  case  against  the  "  mistress  of  the 
seas  "  was  received  with  universal  applause. 

The  author  who  had  patiently  waited  for 
recognition  could  now  be  satisfied,  if  fame 
had  been  his  desire.  Many  literary  reputa 
tions  have  been  built  up  with  as  much  fore 
thought  and  tact  as  go  to  the  making  of 
fortunes.  Lowell  would  not  be  human  if 
he  did  not  relish  a  good  word  better  than 
an  ill  one;  but  he  never  asked  for  the  one 
or  deprecated  the  other.  His  fame  came  as 
slowly  as  if  it  had  been  extorted  from  an 
unwilling  public, — as  if  it  had  been  weighed 
out  to  him,  ounce  by  ounce,  from  an  inex 
orable  balance.  When  unjustly  criticised, 
if  a  friend  proposed  to  take  the  field,  he 
would  say,  "  Don't  bother  yourself  with  any 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  93 

sympathy  for  me  under  my  supposed  suffer 
ings  from  critics.  I  don't  need  it  in  the 
least.  If  a  man  does  anything  good,  the 
world  always  finds  it  out,  sooner  or  later; 
and  if  he  does  n't,  why  the  world  finds  that 
out,  too,  —  and  ought." 

There  is  a  similar  consolation  in  a  couplet 
from  the  "  Fable  for  Critics :  "  — 

"  All  the  critics  on  earth  cannot  crush  with  their  ban 
One  word  that 's  in  tune  with  the  nature  of  man." 

INSIDE  VIEW  OF  SECESSION. 

Mr.  Sawin  was  next  heard  from  in  a  letter 
to  Hosea,  detailing  his  "  conversion,"  des 
canting  upon  the  superior  strain  of  South 
ern  blood,  and  anticipating  the  creation  of 
a  batch  of  nobles  as  soon  as  Secession 
should  be  established.  His  new  wife,  he 
says,  was  a  Higgs,  the  "first  fem'ly"  in  that 


region, 


"  On  her  Ma's  side  all  Juggernot,  on  Pa's  all  Cavileer." 

After  some  ridicule  of  "  Normal "  blood  and 


94  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

Huguenot  descent,  we  have  an  inside  view 
of  Secession,  —  salt  selling  by  the  ounce, 
whiskey  getting  "  skurce,"  and  sugar  not  to 
be  had.  Meantime  the  corner-stone  of  the 
new  State  is  a  powder-cask,  and  Jeff.  Davis 
is  "  cairn  the  Constitooshun  roun'  in  his  hat." 
The  ironical  compliments  of  Mr.  Sawin  to 
the  national  Congress  conclude  the  letter. 

A  burlesque  message  of  Davis  to  the  Con 
federate  Congress  and  a  speech  of  a  South 
ern  sympathizer  in  a  secret  (Northern)  caucus 
followed,  and  then  came  one  of  the  most 
justly  celebrated  of  the  series,  entitled, 
"  Sunthin'  in  the  Pastoral  Line."  One  other, 
soon  to  be  mentioned,  rises  to  a  higher  key ; 
but  this  Pastoral  is  the  perfection  of  descrip 
tive  poetry.  It  is  wonderful  to  see  how  the 
dialect  is  moulded  by  the  thought.  When 
the  sights  and  sounds  and  odors  of  spring 
come  to  mind,  the  crabbed  speech  becomes 
poetical,  as  a  plain  face  glows  into  beauty 
on  the  sudden  impulse  of  the  heart  There 
have  been  many  serious  and  comic  descrip- 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  95 

tions  of  the  waywardness  and  coquetry  of 
a  New  England  spring,  but  this  may  serve 
as  a  resume,  like  a  cyclopaedia.  Every  line 
suggests  a  picture,  neither  stately  nor  jocose, 
but  like  nature  itself. 

There  are  ancient  musical  "  modes "  that 
are  neither  major  nor  minor,  in  which  the 
movement  from  grave  to  joyous  chords  is 
made  without  modulation  and  without  shock. 
So  in  this  unique  Pastoral  we  pause  over  the 
loveliest  images  and  hints  of  tantalizing  like 
ness  ;  and,  while  the  pleasure  still  lingers,  we 
find  that  Hosea  has  gone  on,  whittling  away  at 
some  problem,  and  using  his  mother-wit  with 
unconscious  and  aphoristic  art.  To  give  in 
stances  would  be  to  quote  the  poem.  Sooner 
quote  any  one  of  the  thousand  clumps  of  rosy 
mist  from  Mr.  Sargent's  acre  of  azaleas. 

HOSEA  BECOMES   PASTORAL  AND  IDYLLIC. 

After  a  while,  Hosea,  declaring  himself 
"unsoshle  as  a  stone,"  because  his  "innard 
vane"  has  been  "pintin'  east"  for  weeks 


96  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

together,  starts  off  to  lose  himself  in  the 
pine  woods.  He  comes  to  a  small  deserted 
"  schoolW,"  a  favorite  resort  when  in  a 
bluish  revery,  and,  sitting  down,  he  falls 
asleep.  Here  comes  a  passage  that  must  be 
quoted :  — 

"  Our  lives  in  sleep  are  some  like  streams  thet  glide 
'Twixt  flesh  an'  sperrit  boundin'  on  each  side, 
Where  both  shores'  shadders  kind  o'  mix  and  mingle 
In  sunthin'  thet  ain't  jes'  like  either  single; 
An'  when  you  cast  off  moorin's  from  To-day, 
An*  down  towards  To-morrer  drift  away, 
The  imiges  thet  tengle  on  the  stream 
Make  a  new  upside-down'ard  world  o1  dream." 

A  Pilgrim  Father  appears. 

"  He  wore  a  steeple-hat,  tall  boots,  an'  spurs 
With  rowels  to  'em  big  ez  ches'nut  burrs." 

This  was  Hosea's  remote  ancestor,  once  a 
colonel  in  the  parliamentary  army.  Pie 
makes  himself  known,  and  tells  his  descend 
ant  that  he  had 

"  worked  round  at  sperrit-rappin'  some, 
An'  danced  the  tables  till  their  legs  wuz  gone, 
In  hopes  o'  larnin'  wut  wuz  goin'  on. 
But  mejurns  lie  so  like  all-split 
Thet  I  concluded  it  wuz  best  to  quit." 


THI-:  MILL-WHEEL. 

Sec  page  62. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  97 

In  his  youth,  he  tells  Hosea,  he  had  youth's 
pride  of  opinion :  — 

"  Nothin'  from  Adam's  fall  to  Hiildy's  bonnet, 
Thet  I  warn't  full-cocked  with  my  jedgment  on  it." 

He  makes  a  parallel  between  the  cause  of  the 
loyal  North  and  that  of  the  Commonwealth 
against  King  Charles,  and  exclaims :  — 

" '  Slav'ry  's  your  Charles,  the  Lord  hez  gin  the  exe  — 
'  Our  Charles,'  sez  I,  'hez  gut  eight  million  necks.'  " 

He  likens  the  rebellion  to  the  rattle  of  the 
snake,  and  adds :  — 

"  It 's  Slaverj'  thet  's  the  fangs  an'  thinkin'  head, 
An',  ef  you  want  selvation,  cresh  it  dead ! " 

PARSON  WILBUR. 

In  the  preface  to  the  next  poem  the  death 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilbur  is  announced,  and, 
shadow  though  he  be,  the  reader  feels  his 
loss  like  that  of  a  friend. 

The  thought  of  grief  for  the  death  of  an 
imaginary  person  is  not  quite  so  absurd  as 
it  might  appear.  One  day,  while  the  great 

7 


MS  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

novel  of  "The  Newcomes"  was  in  course  of 
publication,  Lowell,  who  was  then  in  Lon 
don,  met  Thackeray  on  the  street.  The 
novelist  was  serious  in  manner,  and  his  looks 
and  voice  told  of  weariness  and  affliction. 
He  saw  the  kindly  inquiry  in  the  poet's  eyes, 
and  said,  "  Come  in  to  Evans's,  and  I  '11  tell 
you  all  about  it.  /  have  killed  the  Colonel.11 
So  they  walked  in  and  took  a  table  in  a 
remote  corner,  and  then  Thackeray,  draw 
ing  the  fresh  sheets  of  manuscript  from  his 
breast  pocket,  read  through  that  exquisitely 
touching  chapter  which  records  the  death  of 
Colonel  Newcome.  When  he  came  to  the 
final  Adsum,  the  tears  which  had  been  swell 
ing  his  lids  for  some  time  trickled  down 
upon  his  face,  and  the  last  word  was  almost 
an  inarticulate  sob. 

Let  us  go  on  with  Mr.  Wilbur.  In  the 
letter  which  gives  the  news  of  his  death,  the 
writer  declares  that  the  good  clergyman's 
life  was  shortened  by  our  unhappy  civil 
war. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  99 

The  train  of  thought  which  follows  proba 
bly  represents  the  state  of  the  poet's  own 
mind.  Mr.  Wilbur,  in  an  unfinished  letter, 
left  behind,  says :  "It  has  been  my  habit, 
as  you  know,  on  every  recurrence  of  this 
blessed  anniversary  (Christinas),  to  read  Mil 
ton's  *  Hymn  of  the  Nativity,'  till  its  sublime 
harmonies  so  dilated  my  soul  and  quickened 
its  spiritual  sense,  that  I  seemed  to  hear  that 
other  song  which  gave  assurance  to  the  shep 
herds  that  there  was  One  who  would  lead 
them  also  in  green  pastures  and  beside  the 
still  waters.  But  to-day  I  have  been  unable 
to  think  of  anything  but  that  mournful  text, 
1 1  came  not  to  bring  peace,  but  a  sword.' " 

The  poem  sent  with  the  good  parson's  last 
letter  is  a  vigorous  appeal  for  ending  the 
war,  —  a  protest  against  vacillation  and  half- 
heartedness.  The  prelude  shows  the  heart's 
desire :  — 

"  Ef  la  song  or  two  could  make 

Like  rockets  druv  by  their  own  burnin', 
All  leap  an'  light,  to  leave  a  wake 

Men's  hearts  an'  faces  skyward  turniri' ! " 


100  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

The  key-note  of  the  poem  is  in  the  last  coup 
let  of  the  first  stanza :  — 

"  Wut  's  wanted  now  's  the  silent  rhyme 

Twixt  upright  Will  an'  downright  Action." 

Truly  the  struggle  had  been  long  and 
agonizing. 

YANKEE  HUMOR  AND  PATHOS. 

If  the  test  of  poetry  be  in  its  power  over 
hearts,  the  tenth  in  this  series  must  be  placed 
in  the  highest  rank.  The  beginning  is  quaint, 
simple,  and  even  humorous,  but  with  a  sub 
dued  tone ;  there  is  no  intimation  of  the 
coming  pathos ;  nor  are  we  conscious  of  the 
slow  steps  by  which  we  are  led,  stanza  by 
stanza,  to  the  heights  where  thought  and 
feeling  become  one. 

Admirers  of  the  great  actor,  William  War 
ren,  who  is  called  a  comedian,  but  who  is 
possessed  of  the  rarest  pathetic  power,  have 
often  been  indignant  when  rural  auditors, 
imagining  that  everything  uttered  by  the 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  1Q1 

favorite  must  be  funny,  giggle  and  clap  at 
the  marvellous  accents  and  action  which 
move  all  thinking  people  to  sudden  tears. 
It  is  with  some  kindred  apprehension  that 
the  present  writer  ventures  to  quote  a  stanza 
in  the  native  dialect ;  though  full  of  delicate 
feeling,  expressed  with  the  inimitable  art  of 
a  great  poet,  the  unlettered  style  suggests 
only  what  is  ridiculous  "  to  the  general," 
who  can  see  nothing  touching  in  the  senti 
ment  of  a  rustic,  and  are  not  softened  by 
tears  unless  shed  into  a  broidered  handker 
chief. 

"  Sence  I  begun  to  scribble  rhyme, 

I  tell  ye  wut,  I  hain't  ben  foolin' ; 
The  parson's  books,  life,  death,  an'  time 

Hev  took  some  trouble  with  my  schoolin' ; 
Nor  iti  airth  don't  git  put  out  with  me, 

Thet  love  her  'z  though  she  wuz  a  woman; 
IVTiy,  th'  ain't  a  bird  upon  the  tree 

But  iutlf  forgives  my  bein'  human." 

The  poet  goes  on  recalling  — 

"  Sights  innercent  ez  babes  on  knee, 
Peaceful  ez  eyes  o'  pastur'd  cattle  ;  " 


102  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

The  "  yaller  pines," 

"  When  sunshine  makes  'em  all  sweet-scented, 
An'  bear  among  their  furry  boughs 

The  baskin'  west-wind  purr  contented  ;  " 

Then 

"  The  farm-smokes,  sweetes'  sight  on  airth, 

Slow  thru  the  winter  air  a-shrinkm' 
Seem  kin'  o'  sad,  an'  roun'  the  hearth 
Of  empty  places  set  me  thinkiif ." 

This  brings  to  mind  the  poet's  slain  nephews: 

*'  Why,  hain't  I  held  'em  on  my  knee  ? 

Did  n't  I  love  to  see  'em  growin', 
Three  likely  'ads  ez  wal  could  be, 
Hahnsome  an'  brave  an'  not  tu  knowin'?" 

"  Wut  's  words  to  them  whose  faith  an'  truth 

On  War's  red  techstone  rang  true  metal, 
Who  ventered  life  an'  love  an'  youth 

For  the  gret  prize  o'  death  in  battle  ? 
To  him  who,  deadly  hurt,  agen 

Flashed  on  afore  the  charge's  thunder, 
Tippin*  with  fire  the  bolt  of  men 

Thet  rived  the  Rebel  line  asunder  ?  " 

In  this  last  stanza  the  direct,  weighty 
words,  the  intensity  of  feeling,  and  the  force 
of  the  bold  images  create  a  sensation  that 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  103 

is  nothing  less  than  sublime.  It  refers,  as 
readers  perhaps  know,  to  the  poet's  nephew, 
General  Charles  Russell  Lowell,  at  the  battle 
of  Winchester,  who,  though  he  had  received 
a  wound  which  he  knew  to  be  mortal, 
mounted  his  horse,  and  led  his  troops  in  a 
brilliant  charge,  was  again  mortally  wounded, 
and  shortly  after  expired. 

Here  the  sorrowing  Hosea  exclaims :  — 

"  'T  ain't  right  to  hev  the  young  go  fust, 
All  throbbin'  full  o'  gifts  an'  graces." 

But  the  lines  are  palpitant  like  naked  nerves, 
and  every  word  is  like  the  branch  plucked 
by  Dante,  which  trickled  blood.  We  must 
leave  the  poem  with  its  aching  burden,  and 
forbear  to  copy  even  its  noble  conclusion.  • 

HOSEA  AS  AN   ORATOR. 

The  last  of  the  "Biglow  Papers"  is  a 
speech  of  Hosea  in  the  March  town  meeting. 
The  preface  is  by  the  Meliboeus-Hipponax 
himself,  and  is  a  delightful  ragout  of  Yankee 


104  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

phrases,  peppered  with  pungent  wit.  His 
summary  or  "argymunt"  of  a  popular 
speech  has  been  often  copied,  and  has  done 
service  in  many  comic  readings ;  but  its 
irresistible  drollery  keeps  it  fresh. 

Those  who  know  the  real  sources  of  cur 
rent  proverbial  slang,  and  of  much  of  the 
wit  of  Yankeeland,  need  not  be  told  that  the 
"  Biglow  Papers"  have  furnished  enough  for 
the  stock  in  trade  of  a  dozen  professional 
humorists. 

"THE   ARGYMUNT. 

"  Interducshin,  w'ich  may  be  skipt.  Begins  by 
talkin'  about  himself :  thet  's  jest  natur  an'  most 
gin'ally  allus  pleasin',  I  b'leeve  I  've  notist,  to  one 
of  the  cumpany,  an'  thet  's  more  than  wut  you  can 
say  of  most  speshes  of  talkin'.  Nex'  comes  the 
gittin'  the  goodwill  of  the  orjunce  by  lettin'  'em 
gether  from  wut  you  kind  of  ex'dentally  let  drop 
thet  they  air  about  East,  A  one,  an'  no  mistaik, 
skare  'em  up  an'  take  'em  as  they  rise.  Spring 
interdooced  with  a  fiew  approput  flours.  Speach 
finally  begins  witch  nobuddy  need  n't  feel  oboly- 
gated  to  read  as  I  never  read  'em  an'  never  shell 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  105 

this  one  ag'in.  Subjick  staited ;  expanded ;  de- 
layted;  extended.  Pump  lively.  Subjick  staited 
ag'in  so  's  to  avide  all  rnistaiks.  Ginnle  remarks  ; 
continooed ;  kerried  on ;  pushed  furder ;  kind  o' 
gin  out.  Subjick  re-staited  ;  dielooted ;  stirred  up 
permiscoous.  Pump  ag'in.  Gits  back  to  where 
he  sot  out.  Can't  seem  to  stay  thair.  Ketches 
into  Mr.  Seaward's  hair.  Breaks  loose  ag'in  an' 
staits  his  subjick ;  stretches  it ;  turns  it ;  folds  it ; 
onfolds  it;  folds  it  ag'in  so  's  't  no  one  can't  find  it. 
Argoos  with  an  imedginary  bean  thet  ain't  aloud 
to  say  nothin'  in  repleye.  Gives  him  a  real  good 
dressin'  an'  is  settysfide  he  's  rite.  Gits  into  John 
son's  hair.  No  use  tryiii'  to  git  into  his  head. 
Gives  it  up.  Hez  to  stait  his  subjick  ag'in  ;  doos 
it  back'ards,  sideways,  eendways,  criss-cross,  bevel- 
lin',  noways.  Gits  finally  red  on  it.  Concloods. 
Concloods  more.  Reads  some  xtrax.  Sees  his  sub 
jick  a-nosin'  round  arter  him  ag'in.  Tries  to  avide 
it.  Wun't  du.  Misstates  it.  Can't  conjectur'  no 
other  plawsable  way  of  staytin'  on  it.  Tries  pump. 
No  fx.  Finely  concloods  to  conclood.  Yeels  the 
flore." 

In  the  course  of  the  speech  that  follows, 
Mr.  Biglow  observes :  — 


106  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

"  N.  R     Reporters  gin'lly  git  a  hint 
To  make  dull  orjunces  seem  'live  in  print, 
An',  ez  I  hev  t'  report  myself,  I  vum, 
I  '11  put  th'  appkuses  where  they  'tl  ough'  to  come!" 

Little  did  the  orator  of  Jaalam  suppose 
that  his  shrewd  plan  would  be  copied  years 
afterwards  by  a  great  lecturer. 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

The  speech  is  supposed  to  have  been  made 
in  April,  1866,  a  year  after  the  surrender  of 
Lee;  and  the  "subjick"  is  naturally  upon 
what  has  since  been  called  "reconstruction." 
In  the  light  of  the  history  of  the  last  dozen 
years,  the  sound  sense  and  almost  prophetic 
character  of  this  speech  are  remarkable.  It 
is  free  from  bitterness,  but  it  states  with  un 
flinching  rigor  the  only  conditions  of  national 
unity.  Of  these  the  chief  is 

"  the  old  A  nidi  k  in  idee, 
To  make  a  man  a  Han  an'  let  him  be." 

The  President,  Andrew  Johnson,  comes  in 
for  the  hardest  hits. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  107 

"  '  Nobody  ain't  a  Union  man,'  sez  he, 
'Thout  he  agrees,  thru  thick  an'  thin,  with  me  ;" 


u  Is  this  ere  pop'lar  gov'ment  thet  we  run 
A  kin'  o'  sulky,  made  to  kerry  one  ?  " 

"  Who  cares  for  the  Resolves  of  '61, 
Thet  tried  to  coax  an  airtbquake  with  a  bun?" 

"  He  thinks  secession  never  took  'em  ont, 
An'  mebby  he  's  correc',  but  I  misdoubt ; 
Ef  they  war  n't  out,  then  why,  'n  the  name  o'  sin, 
Make  all  this  row  'bout  lettin'  of  'em  in  ?  " 

[Derisive  cheers.] 

"  0,  did  it  seem  'z  ef  Providunce 
Could  ever  send  a  second  Tyler  ? 
To  see  the  South  all  back  to  once, 
Reapin'  the  spiles  o'  the  Freesiler, 
Is  cute  ez  though  an  ingineer 
Should  claim  th'  old  iron  for  his  sheer 
Coz  't  was  himself  that  bust  the  biler! " 

[Gret  laughter.] 

THE  DECAY   OF  THE  YANKEE  DIALECT. 

From  this  comparatively  long,  but  really 
brief  and  inadequate,  synopsis  the  reader 
may  infer  the  high  aim  and  definite  moral 


108  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

purpose  of  the  "  Biglow  Papers,"  and  their 
intimate  connection  with  our  national  his 
tory.  Poetry  seldom  needs  comment ;  the 
lightning  flash  explains  itself;  and,  in  truth, 
comment  rarely  carries  admiration  along  with 
it  into  the  mind  of  the  reader.  But  the  "  Big- 
low  Papers  "  are  in  a  foreign  tongue  for  all 
city  folk ;  and  even  in  the  country  the  patois 
has  for  a  long  time  been  faithfully  grubbed 
up  by  school-ma'ams,  like  the  Canada  thistle. 
An  appreciation  of  Burns  comes  after  as  much 
study  as  the  Provencal  songs  require,  and  it 
is  only  one  "  native  and  to  the  manner  born  " 
who  is  able  to  perceive  and  to  convey  by 
vocal  inflections  the  right  effect  of  the  eli 
sions  and  contractions  that  make  such  thorny 
thickets  of  Yankee  verse.  On  the  other  hand, 
few  of  those  who  have  inherited  knowledge 
of  the  dialect  have  the  cultivation  and  the 
innate  feeling  for  the  essence  of  poetry, 
which  many  of  Lowell's  productions  ask  of 
the  reader.  Between  the  difficulties  of  the 
dialect,  and  the  high  demands  of  all  true 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  109 

poetry  upon  the  intelligence,  the  highest 
qualities  of  the  "  Biglow  Papers "  are  far 
enough  removed  from  popular  apprehension. 
But  whoever  will  give  them  such  a  study  as 
will  insure  mastery,  will  be  rewarded  by  the 
knowledge  of  some  of  the  most  vigorous, 
impassioned,  humorous,  dainty,  quaint,  and 
glowing  verse  of  our  century. 

As,  at  the  beginning,  Lowell  was  men 
tioned  as  one  of  the  forces  and  products  of 
the  age,  —  an  actor  and  sympathizer  in  its 
moral  and  political  movements,  —  it  has  been 
deemed  essential  to  dwell  more  upon  the 
works  which  have  become  a  part  of  our  his 
tory.  The  usual  topics  of  poetry  —  nature 
and  man  —  have  been  illustrated  in  many 
graceful  and  noble  poems  by  many  loved 
and  honored  poets :  by  Lowell  also ;  but  in 
the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  meaning  and 
use  of  poetry  he  is  but  one  of  several  emi 
nent  masters,  each  having  his  own  great 
merits  ;  while  in  this  new  field  lie  is  wholly 
without  a  rival,  —  the  sole  laureate  of  the 


110  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

native,  unlettered  speech,  and  the  exemplar 
of  the  mother-wit  of  New  England.  The 
few  characters  in  his  dramas  are  comple 
mentary,  or  perhaps,  as  he  himself  sug 
gests,  "  humorously  identical  under  a  seem 
ing  incongruity."  The  Rev.  Mr.  Wilbur 
expresses  "  the  more  cautious  element  of  the 
New  England  character  and  its  pedantry," 
as  Hosea  Biglow  does  "  its  homely  common- 
sense  vivified  and  heated  by  conscience.  .  .  . 
Finding  that  I  needed  some  one  as  a  mouth 
piece  of  the  mere  drollery,  ...  I  invented 
Mr.  Sawin  for  the  clown  of  my  little  puppet 
show." 

The  introduction  to  the  series  is  a  learned 
and  masterly  account  of  the  dialect,  —  as  a 
legitimate  derivative  of  the  spoken  English 
of  the  Elizabethan  age,  —  and  a  protest 
against  the  prevalent  "fine  writing,"  as  tend 
ing  to  weaken  prose  and  stifle  poetry.  He 
defends  certain  extravagances  in  speech  (la 
mented  by  purists)  as  being  evidences  of 
"  intensity  and  picturesqueness,  symptoms  of 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


the  imaginative  faculty  in  full  health  and 
strength."  He  says,  "  The  first  postulate  of 
an  original  literature  is  that  a  people  should 
use  their  language  instinctively  and  uncon 
sciously.  .  .  .  Even  Burns  contrived  to  write 
very  poor  verse  and  prose  in  English.  Vul 
garisms  are  often  only  poetry  in  the  egg." 

The  whole  essay  is  pervaded  by  the  in 
tense  individuality  of  genius.  After  enduring 
the  petulance  and  assumption  of  philologists, 
and  the  canal-water  flow  of  conservators  of 
the  purity  of  English,  this  fresh  and  original 
discussion  is  as  charming  and  exhilarating  as 
a  day  in  the  woods  in  spring. 

CHAUCER-BOCCACCIO. 

"  Fitz  Adam's  Story"  was  printed  in  the 
"Atlantic"  for  January,  1867,  but  has  not 
yet  been  included  in  any  "  complete"  edi 
tion.  A  note  informs  us  that  it  was  intended 
as  a  part  of  a  longer  poem  to.be  called  "  The 
Nooning."  It  stands  like  the  wing  of  a  pro 
jected  edifice,  waiting  for  the  main  structure 
to  give  it  countenance. 


112  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

This  poem  has  many  traits  in  common 
with  the  best  of  the  "  Biglow  Papers."  Like 
them,  it  is  exuberant  in  feeling  and  secular 
in  tone ;  and  its  movement  is  breezy,  out-of- 
doors,  and  natural,  —  as  different  from  the 
precise,  conscious,  and  scholastic  manner  as 
the  glowing  energy  of  a  sermon  by  Beecher  is 
from  the  marmorean  elegance  of  Everett.  The 
poem  is  not  wholly  in  a  comic  vein.  The 
portrait  of  Fitz  Adam  himself  is  a  master 
piece,  an  instantaneous  view  of  a  complexity 
of  character  and  motive, — genius  and  whim 
kneaded  together  and  made  real  flesh  and 
blood.  In  fact,  the  author  uses  the  whole 
gamut,  and  has  the  ready  chords  for  senti 
ment  and  poetical  description  as  well  as  for 
the  swift  parlando  of  wit  and  the  unrestrained 
chorus  of  fun. 

Fitz  Adam  tells  us,  — 

"  Without  a  Past  you  lack  that  southern  wall 
O'er  which  the  vines  of  Poesy  should  crawl." 

He  pays  his  homage  to  our  great  ro 
mancer  :  — 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  H3 

"  You  have  one  story-teller  worth  a  score 
Of  dead  Boccaccios,  —  nay,  add  twenty  more, 
A  hawthorn  asking  spring's  most  southern  breath, 
And  him  you  're  freezing  pretty  well  to  death." 

He  takes  us  to  Shebagog  County,  where 
the  summer  idlers 

"  Dress  to  see  Nature  in  a  well-bred  way, 
As  't  were  Italian  opera,  or  play, 
Encore  the  sunrise,  (if  they  're  out  of  bed,) 
And  pat  the  Mighty  Mother  on  the  head." 

Fond  of  the  frontiers-men  and  their  natu 
ral  ways,  he  puts  them  in  a  line :  — 

"  The  shy,  wood-wandering  brood  of  character." 

He  paints  the  landlord  of  the  rustic  inn. 
The  picture  seems  as  deep-lined  and  lasting 
'as   one   of    Chaucer's.     We   see  the  tanned 
cheeks  and  the  ubrambly  breast,"  and  how 

"  a  hedge  of  gray 

Upon  his  brawny  throat  leaned  every  way 
About  an  Adam's,  apple  that  beneath 
Bulged  like  a  bowlder  from  a  furzy  heath." 

The  landlord  gives  an  axiom  for  the  kitchen, 
for  which  the  epicure  will  hold  him  in  affec 
tionate  remembrance  :  — 

8 


114  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

"  Nothin'  riles  me  (I  pledge  my  fast  in'  word), 
Like  cookin'  out  the  nutur'  of  a  binl." 

Fitz  Adam  describes  the  solemn  parlor  in 
a  way  to  raise  a  sympathetic  chill  in  the 
reader :  — 

"  Where  the  black  sofa  with  its  horse-hair  pall 
Gloomed  like  the  bier  for  Comfort's  funeral." 

The  bar  is  painted  as  if  by  Teniers,  with  its 
great  wood-fire,  and  the  coals  in  which  was 
heating 

"  the  loggerhead  whose  hissing  dip, 
Timed  by  nice  instinct,  creamed  the  mug  of  flip." 

Then  follows  the  encounter  of  teamsters'  wits, 
and  the  sketch  of  Deacon  Bitters,  a  mean  and 
avaricious  wretch  whose  tricks  brought  him 
to  a  sulphureous  end.  The  audacity  of  the 
story  is  forgotten  in  its  absurdly  comic  keep 
ing.  It  is  a  modern  Canterbury  Tale. 

THE  PROFESSOR  SUPPLANTS  THE  POET. 

Though  Harvard  College  and  its  succes 
sive  classes  of  students  and  the  learned 
world  have  been  indebted  to  the  critical 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  H5 

labors  of  Lowell,  yet  mankind  at  large  have 
been  more  interested  in  the  original  creations 
of  his  genius.  The  effect  of  his  engrossing 
and  protracted  studies  has  been  to  make 
more  prominent  the  philosophic  tone  in  his 
verse.  To  him  who  is  day  by  day  wrestling 
with  the  stern  problems  of  Dante,  or  con 
templating  the  creations  of  Shakespeare, 
there  may  come  a  high  and  noble  mastery 
of  philosophy  and  art.  But  the  period  in 
which  the  poet  delights  in  outdoor  life  — 
when  his  soul  feels  God  in  nature,  and  floats 
in  the  ocean  of  analogies  between  the  real 
and  the  ideal  world  —  is  the  period  in  which 
his  best  poems  are  born.  The  work  of  the 
great  critic  may  imply  the  rarer  power ; 
but  mankind  cherishes  more  the  pictures 
of  Beaver  Brook  and  Appledore,  the  song  of 
bobolinks,  the  joy  of  spring,  and  the  loves 
of  Huldys  and  Zekles.  Lowell's  mind  un 
derwent  a  change  also  in  the  loss  of  his 
heroic  nephews  and  other  near  relatives  in 
the  war.  This  is  painfully  evident  in  the 


116  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 

poem  before  quoted.  There  were  to  be 
fewer  birds  and  blossoms  thenceforth.  The 
awful  lessons  of  Divine  Providence  were 
sucli  as  to  sadden  the  most  joyous  or  the 
most  religious  of  men.  Under  such  afflic 
tions,  particularly  after  life  has  passed  its 
meridian,  it  is  impossible  to  feel  anew  the 
ecstatic  thrills  in  the  presence  of  nature ; 
the  mind  grows  introspective,  ponders  the 
deep  questions  of  Job  and  his  friends,  and 
forgets  the  external  world. 

UNDER  THE  WILLOWS. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  period  in  which 
Lowell's  most  popular  works  appeared  ended 
with  the  late  war.  They  cannot  be  classified, 
however,  in  a  chronological  order,  because 
he  sometimes  allowed  a  considerable  period 
to  pass  before  giving  a  poem  to  the  public. 
The  collection  entitled  "  Under  the  Willows," 
published  in  1869,  contains  "  A  Winter-Even 
ing  Hymn  to  my  Fire,"  printed  originally 
in  "  Putnam's  Monthly  "  fifteen  years  before. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  U7 

11  Fitz  Adam's  Story,"  which  has  just  been 
considered,  belongs  to  a  similar  period,  as  do 
the  gay  and  characteristic  acknowledgment  of 
Mr.  John  Bartlett's  trout,  and  the  well-known 
pathetic  ballad,  "  The  First  Snow-Fall."  In 
the  variety  of  subjects,  the  perfect  keeping 
of  the  style  of  each,  the  power  of  suggesting 
a  landscape  or  an  image  by  a  single  phrase, 
and  in  the  mature  and  perfect  art,  this  volume 
has  a  rightful  place  among  the  chief  intel 
lectual  works  of  the  century. 

It  is  difficult  to  convey  an  adequate  im 
pression  of  these  poems,  because  it  is  seldom 
that  the  striking  paragraphs  are  separable. 
The  address  "To  the  Muse"  is  the  most 
subtile  and  delicate  in  treatment ;  and  "  Villa 
Franca"  and  "The  Washers  of  the  Shroud" 
are  the  strongest  in  thought.  Two  stanzas 
are  quoted  from  "Villa  Franca"  which  show 
a  singular  prophetic  power.  The  poem  was 
written  in  1859,  at  the  time  of  the  meeting 
of  the  three  emperors,  when  Napoleon  III. 
appeared  to  be  as  firmly  established  as  his 
great  and  long-descended  compeers. 


118  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 


VILLA  FRANCA. 

"We  shall  see  him  come  and  gone, 
This  second-hand  Napoleon. 

"  We  saw  the  elder  Corsican, 
And  Clotho  muttered  as  she  span, 
Wbile  crowned  lackeys  bore  the  train, 
Of  the  pinchbeck  Charlemagne  : 
'  Sister,  stint  not  length  of  thread ! 
Sister,  stay  the  scissors  dread  ! 
On  Saint  Helen's  granite  bleak, 
Hark,  the  vulture  whets  his  beak  I ' 

Spin,  spin,  Clotho,  spin ! 

Lachcsis,  twist  !  and,  Atropos,  sever  ! 

In  the  shadow,  year  out,  year  in, 

The  silent  headsman  waits  forever. 

"  The  Bonapartes,  we  know  their  bees 
That  wade  in  honey  red  to  the  knees  ; 
Their  patent  reaper,  its  sheaves  sleep  sound 
In  dreamless  garners  underground  : 
We  know  false  glory's  spendthrift  race 
Pawning  nations  for  feathers  and  lace  ; 
It  may  be  short,  it  may  be  long, 
'  'T  is  reckoning-day ! '  sneers  unpaid  Wrong. 

Spin,  spin,  Clotho,  spin  ! 

Lachesis,  twist !  and,  Atropoe,  sever  ! 

In  the  shadow,  year  out,  year  in, 

The  silent  headsman  wait*  forever." 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 


One  small  poem  is  printed  entire,  as  a  rare 
specimen  of  aphoristic  art. 

FOR  AN  AUTOGRAPH. 

Though  old  the  thought  and  oft  exprest, 
'T  is  his  at  last  who  says  it  best,  — 
I  '11  try  my  fortune  with  the  rest. 

Life  is  a  leaf  of  paper  white 
Whereon  each  one  of  us  may  write 
His  word  or  two,  and  then  comes  night. 

"  Lo,  time  and  space  enough,"  we  cry, 
"  To  write  an  epic  !  "  so  we  try 
Our  nibs  upon  the  edge,  and  die. 

Muse  not  which  way  the  pen  to  hold, 
Luck  hates  the  slow  and  loves  the  bold, 
Soon  come  the  darkness  and  the  cold. 

Greatly  begin  !  though  thou  have  time 
But  for  a  line,  be  that  sublime,  — 
Not  failure,  but  low  aim,  is  crime. 

Ah,  with  what  lofty  hope  we  came  ! 
But  we  forget  it,  dream  of  fame, 
And  scrawl,  as  I  do  here,  a  name. 


120  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

As  a  critic,  Lowell  has  been  more  unspar 
ing  upon  his  own  productions  than  upon  the 
works  of  others.  Genius  and  Taste  are  twin- 
born  ;  the  one  creates,  the  other  tests.  Many 
a  day  Genius  produces  nothing1  that  Taste  will 
allow.  Taste  corrects  or  blots  out,  so  as  to 
leave  nothing  that  Time  will  destroy.  Happy 
is  the  Genius  with  whom  Taste  continues  to 
dwell  as  a  friend  and  helper.  Too  often  he 
goes  over  to  the  enemy,  and  sits  in  judgment 
with  the  reviewers. 

Some  of  his  later  poems  have,  as  in  Emer 
son's  "  Test,"  been  hung  in  the  wind  and 
smelted  in  a  pot, 

"  Till  the  meaning  was  more  white 
Than  July's  meridian  light. 
Sunshine  cannot  bleach  the  enow, 
Nor  Time  unmake  what  poets  know." 

METAPHYSICAL  SUBTILTY   IN   POETRY. 

The  original  traits  of  Lowell's  genius  are 
unmistakable ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  gravity  of 
his  later  poems,  the  reader  often  comes  upon 
the  turns  of  thought  which  marked  his  verse 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  121 

twenty  years  before.  But  along  with  the 
continued  likeness  there  has  been  a  slowly 
growing  divergence.  In  the  development  of 
a  scholar  and  poet  we  expect  to  see  the  evi 
dences  of  maturing  powers,  varied  experience, 
and  mastery  of  expression ;  that  is  to  say, 
force,  wisdom,  and  skill  are  the  natural  gains 
of  twenty  years.  This  is  true  in  the  case 
of  Lowell;  but  what  is  more  remarkable  is 
the  steady  lifting  of  his  intellectual  horizon, 
and  the  spiritualizing  of  thought,  so  that, 
as  in  the  celestial  mechanics,  words  become 
the  symbols  of  ideas  that  reach  towards  the 
infinite.  This  is  considered  to  be  in  the 
domain  of  Emerson,  but  Lowell  is  some 
times  more  transcendental  even  than  the 
great  poet-philosopher  himself. 

In  "The  Foot-Path"  the  reader  begins 
with  a  view  that  is  within  his  not  infrequent 
experience :  — 

"  It  mounts  athwart  the  windy  hill 

Through  sallow  slopes  of  upland  bare, 
And  Fancy  climbs  with  foot-fall  still 
Its  narrowing  curves  that  end  in  air." 


122  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

But  the  poet's  aerial  way  only  begins  where 
mortal  vision  ends.  As  stanza  succeeds 
musical  stanza,  the  mind  follows  clews  and 
glimpses,  conscious  of  sensations  for  which 
there  are  no  words,  and  of  an  upward  motion 
into  a  realm  where  ideas  are  as  fluent  as  air, 
and  as  impalpable.  Read  this  exquisite  but 
tantalizing  poem  to  any  chance-gathering  of 
well-bred  people,  and  observe  their  puzzled 
expression  !  To  some  it  will  appear  a  musi 
cal  stream,  without  ripple  and  without  mean 
ing.  Few  will  climb  the  poet's  stairway  to 
the  heaven  of  thought ! 

Humboldt  said  that  the  vegetation  upon 
the  sides  of  Chimborazo  exhibits  at  succes 
sive  elevations  all  the  characteristic  flora  from 
the  equator  to  the  arctic  circle :  the  bound 
less  luxuriance  of  the  tropics  at  the  base, 
and  the  etenial  ice  of  the  pole  at  the  sum 
mit.  Poetry  likewise  comprehends  many 
zones.  Its  lower  level  is  in  scenes  of  lavish 
beauty,  and  it  concerns  itself  in  the  joy  of 
the  senses  in  external  nature.  Higher  up 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  123 

there  are  fewer  flowers  and  hardier  growths, 
but  "purer  air  and  broader  view."  Still 
higher  are  the  brown  and  lichened  steeps 
that  tax  strength  and  demand  self-denial. 
Above,  and  reaching  into  the  infinite  sky,  is 
the  silent  peak,  inaccessible,  eternal. 

COMMEMORATION  ODE. 

The  Commemoration  Ode  (July  21,  1865) 
naturally  succeeds  the  poignant  grief  of  the 
later  "  Biglow  Papers."  The  dedication  is 
one  that  only  a  poet  could  have  written  :  "  To 
the  ever  sweet  and  shining  memory  of  the 
ninety-three  sons  of  Harvard  College  who 
have  died  for  their  country  in  the  war  of 
nationality."  In  the  privately  printed  edi 
tion  of  the  poem  the  names  of  eight  of  the 
poet's  kindred  are  given.  The  nearest  in 
blood  are  his  nephews,  General  Charles 
Russell  Lowell,  killed  at  Winchester,  Lieu 
tenant  James  Jackson  Lowell,  at  Seven 
Pines,  and  Captain  William  Lowell  Putnam, 


124  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

at  Ball's  Bluff.  Another  relative  was  the  he 
roic  Colonel  Robert  G.  Shaw,  who  fell  in  the 
assault  upon  Fort  Wagner.  The  Commemo 
ration  services  took  place  in  the  open  air,  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  assembly.  Promi 
nent  among  the  speakers  were  Major-General 
Meade,  the  hero  of  Gettysburg,  and  Major- 
General  Devens.  The  wounds  of  the  war 
were  still  fresh  and  bleeding,  and  the  interest 
of  the  occasion  was  deep  and  thrilling.  The 
summer  afternoon  was  drawing  to  its  close 
when  the  poet  began  the  recital  of  the  ode. 
No  living  audience  could  for  the  first  time 
follow  with  intelligent  appreciation  the  de 
livery  of  such  a  poem.  To  be  sure,  it  had 
its  obvious  strong  points  and  its  sonorous 
charms ;  but,  like  all  the  later  poems  of  the 
author,  it  is  full  of  condensed  thought  and 
requires  study.  The  reader  to-day  finds 
many  passages  whose  force  and  beauty  es 
caped  him  during  the  recital,  yet  the  effect 
of  the  poem  at  the  time  was  overpowering. 
The  face  of  the  poet,  always  singularly  ex- 


A    BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  125 

press! ve,  was  on  this  occasion  almost  trans 
figured,  —  glowing,  as  if  with  an  inward 
light.  It  was  impossible  to  look  away  from 
it.  Our  age  has  furnished  many  great  his 
toric  scenes,  but  this  Commemoration  com 
bined  the  elements  of  grandeur  and  pathos, 
and  produced  an  impression  as  lasting  as  life. 
Of  the  merits  of  the  ode  it  is  perhaps  too 
soon  to  speak.  In  nobility  of  sentiment  and 
sustained  power  it  appears  to  take  rank 
among  the  first  in  the  language.  To  us, 
with  the  memories  of  the  war  in  mind,  it 
seems  more  beautiful  and  of  a  finer  quality 
than  the  best  of  Dryden's.  What  the  people 
of  the  coming  centuries  will  say,  who  knows  ? 
We  only  know  that  the  auditors,  scholars  and 
soldiers  alike,  were  dissolved  in  admiration 
and  tears. 

TWO  FRIENDS. 

As  the  people  were  dispersing,  a  fresh- 
looking,  active,  and  graceful  man  of  middle 
age,  in  faultless  attire,  met  the  poet  with  an 


126  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

outstretched  hand.  There  was  a  hearty 
greeting  on  botli  sides,  —  so  hearty,  that  one 
wonders  how  it  could  have  happened  be 
tween  two  Bostonians,  whose  marble  man 
ners  the  public  knows  so  well  from  our 
recent  fashionable  novels.  It  was  not  the 
formal  touch  of  gloved  hands,  but  an  old- 
fashioned  energetic  "  shake  ;  "  and  it  was 
accompanied  by  spontaneous,  half-articulated 
words  (such  as  the  heart  translates  without 
a  lexicon),  while  eager  and  misty  eyes  met 
each  other.  The  new-comer  was  William 
W.  Story,  the  sculptor  and  poet.  —  "  When 
did  you  come  over?" — "I  landed  at  Bos- 

•/ 

ton  this  morning.  I  had  heard  you  were  to 
read  a  poem ;  there  was  just  time  to  make 
the  trip,  and  here  I  am."  —  "And  so  you 
have  come  from  Rome  merely  to  hear  me 
recite  an  ode?  Well,  it  is  just  like  you." 

THE  CATHEDRAL.  —  CONSERVATISM. 

"  The   Cathedral "   is  a  profound   medita 
tion   upon  a  great  theme.     A   poet   is  not 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  127 

held  to  the  literal  meaning  of  the  motto 
he  selects,  but  the  lines  prefixed  to  this 
poem l  are  strongly  significant  of  a  grow 
ing  conservatism  in  thought.  "  Not '  at  all 
do  we  set  our  wits  against  the  gods. 
The  traditions  of  the  fathers,  and  those  of 
equal  date  which  we  possess,  no  reasoning 
shall  overthrow ;  not  even  if  through  lofty 
minds  it  discovers  wisdom."  This  is  perhaps 
a  fair  indication  of  the  feeling  of  the  poem. 
The  incidents  of  the  day  at  Chartres  are 
unimportant,  except  in  connection  with  the 
poet's  admiration  for  Gothic  architecture,  and 
his  musings  upon  the  associations  of  the 
cathedral,  the  old  worship,  the  old  reverence, 
and  the  old  ways. 

It  would  seem  that  the  intellectual  move 
ment  in  which  the  poet  had  been  borne  on 
for  so  many  years  was  latterly  becoming  too 
rapid  and  tumultuous,  according  to  his  think 
ing,  —  ready  to  plunge  into  an  abyss,  in  fact. 
In  particular,  it  may  be  observed  that,  though 

1  Euripides,  Bacchse,  196-199. 


128  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

the  physical  aspect  of  evolution  had  engaged 
his  attention,  as  it  has  that  of  all  intellectual 
men,  and  had  commanded,  perhaps,  a  startled 
and  dubious  assent,  yet  his  strong  spiritual 
nature  recoiled  in  horror  from  the  material 
istic  application  of  the  doctrine  to  the  origin 
of  things.  Force  could  never  be  to  him  the 
equivalent  of  spirit,  nor  law  the  substitute  for 
God.  In  conversation  once  upon  the  "  prom- 
ise-and-potency  "  phrases  of  Tyndall,  he  ex 
claimed  with  energy,  "  Let  whoever  wishes 
to,  believe  that  the  idea  of  Hamlet  or  Lear 
was  developed  from  a  clod  ;  I  will  not." 

A  couplet  from  "  The  Foot- Path  "  makes  a 
similar  protest  against  the  theory  of  the  uni 
verse  which  leaves  out  a  Creator  :  — 

"  And  envy  Science  not  her  feat 

To  make  a  twice-told  tale  of  God." 

Intimations  of  the  Berkeleyan  theory  ap 
pear  in  "  The  Cathedral,"  not  as  matters  of 
belief,  but  of  speculation.  But  the  granitic 
basis  of  the  poem  is  the  generally  received 
doctrine  of  the  being  of  God,  —  of  His  works 


.  ng» 
;  all  in  i 

I,  and  Ji. 


and  dubious  :i 

nati. 

isti< 

• 

claimed 

to,  1 

was  develo] 

.  ntplrt  1. 

-  O« 
"A 

Intiniat 


' 


u  ni 


ap- 


.ut  of  spec;  it  the  granitic 

• 

—  of  Hi 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  129 

and  His  dealings  with  men.  The  clear  pur 
pose  is  seen  by  the  attentive  reader,  although 
at  times  through  a  haze  of  poetic  diction.  Its 
strong  points  are  in  the  simplicity  and  sug- 
gestiveness  of  its  illustrations,  its  firm  hold 
upon  the  past,  and  its  tranquil  repose  in  the 
care  of  Divine  Providence.  The  style  is  for 
the  most  part  scholastic,  nervous,  and  keen- 
edged.  There  are  some  lovely  rural  pictures 
near  the  beginning,  so  characteristic  that  if 
they  were  done  in  color  we  should  not  need 
to  look  at  the  corner  for  the  "  J.  R.  L.  pinxV 
The  episode  of  the  two  Englishmen  at 
Chartres,  who,  on  account  of  the  poet's  full 
and  ruddy  beard,  mistook  him  for  a  French 
man,  and  endeavored  to  engage  him  as  a 
guide,  is  a  piece  of  drollery  that  one  would 
prefer  to  see  in  a  sketch  by  Artemus  Ward 
or  Mark  Twain. 

"My  beard  translated  me  to  hostile  French; 
So  they,  desiring  guidance  in  the  town, 
Half  condescended  to  my  baser  sphere, 
And,  clubbing  in  one  mess  their  lack  of  phrase, 
Set  their  best  man  to  grapple  with  the  Gaul. 
9 


i:M  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

'  Esker  vous  ate  a  nabitang  ? '  be  asked  ; 

'  I  never  ate  one  ;  are  they  good  ? '  asked  I ; 

Whereat  they  stared,  then  laughed,  and  we  were  friends." 

The  wit  is  perhaps  bright,  but  the  passage 
is  painfully  incongruous.  It  is  true  the 
old  cathedrals  have  carvings  of  grotesque 
comedy,  but  they  are  in  stone,  and  are  not 
obtrusive.  This  appears  to  be  the  single 
thought  out  of  place  in  the  high  serenity  of 
a  philosophic  poem. 

Two  instances  of  the  harmony  of  sound 
and  sense  are  quite  remarkable.  One  is 
the  description  of  the  falling  of  an  ash-leaf,  — 

"  Balancing  softly  earthward  without  wind,"  — 

an  inimitably  perfect  line.     The  other  sug 
gests  the  swinging  of  a  bell-blossom  :  — 

"As  to  a  bee  the  new  campanula's 
Illuminate  seclusion  swung  in  air." 

A  few  lines  and  passages  may  be  quoted 
with  advantage :  — 

"  I  found  mine  eyes 

Confronted  with  the  minster's  vast  repose. 
Silent  and  gray  as  forest-leaguered  cliff 
Left  inland  by  the  ocean's  slow  retreat 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  131 

(Of  Gothic  Architecture.') 

But  ah  !  this  other,  this  that  never  ends, 
Still  climbing,  luring  fancy  still  to  climb, 
As  full  of  morals  half-divined  as  life, 
Graceful,  grotesque,  with  ever  new  surprise 
Of  hazardous  caprices  sure  to  please, 
Heavy  as  nightmare,  airy-light  as  fern, 
Imagination's  very  self  in  stone  ! 


Far  up  the  great  bells  wallowed  in  delight, 
Tossing  their  clangors  o'er  the  heedless  town. 

Use  can  make  sweet  the  peach's  shady  side, 
That  only  by  reflection  tastes  of  sun. 

...  on  the  sliding  Eure, 
Whose  listless  leisure  suits  the  quiet  place, 
Lisping  among  his  shallows  homelike  sounds 
At  Concord  and  by  Bankside  heard  before. 

Blessed  the  natures  shored  on  every  side 
With  landmarks  of  hereditary  thought ! 

Now  Calvin  and  Servetus  at  one  board 
Snuff  in  grave  sympathy  a  milder  roast, 
And  o'er  their  claret  settle  Comte  unread. 
Fagot  and  stake  were  desperately  sincere  : 
Our  cooler  martyrdoms  are  done  in  types. 


132  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL, 

Tliou  beautiful  Old  Time,  now  hid  away 

In  the  Past's  valley  of  Avilion, 

Haply,  like  Arthur,  till  thy  wound  be  healed, 

Then  to  reclaim  the  sword  and  crown  again  ! 

Thrice  beautiful  to  us  ;  perchance  less  fair 

To  who  possessed  thee,  as  a  mountain  seems 

To  dwellers  round  its  bases  but  a  heap 

Of  barren  obstacle  that  lairs  the  storm 

And  the  avalanche's  silent  bolt  holds  back 

Leashed  with  a  hair,  —  meanwhile  some  far-off  clown, 

Hereditary  delver  of  the  plain, 

Sees  it  an  unmoved  vision  of  repose, 

Nest  of  the  morning,  and  conjectures  there 

The  dance  of  streams  to  idle  shepherds'  pipes, 

And  fairer  habitations  softly  hung 

On  breezy  slopes,  or  hid  in  valleys  cool, 

For  happier  men." 

True  to  its  name,  "  The  Cathedral "  is  a 
grand  poem,  at  once  solid  and  imaginative, 
nobly  ornate,  but  with  a  certain  austerity  of 
design,  uplifting  and  impressive.  These  edi 
fices  are  perhaps  the  most  wonderful  produc 
tions  of  mind  ;  but  they  are  gloomy  also,  and 
in  some  moods  strike  a  chill  to  the  very 
marrow. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  133 

CONCORD,   CAMBRIDGE,   VIRGINIA. 

Three  odes  have  since  appeared,  written 
for  important  occasions,  all  characterized  by 
a  lofty  tone  of  sentiment  and  stately  poetic 
diction.  The  first  is  one  read  at  Concord, 
April  19,  1875;  the  next  is  that  read  at 
Cambridge,  under  the  Washington  Elm,  July 
3d  in  the  same  year;  the  third,  an  ode  for 
the  Fourth  of  July,  1876.  The  Concord  ode 
contains  the  most  exquisite  music,  and  shows 
the  most  evident  inspiration.  The  Cam 
bridge  ode  is  remarkable  for  its  noble  tribute 
to  Washington  and  to  the  historic  Common 
wealth  of  Virginia.  The  last  is  beautiful 
also,  and  strong,  but  scarcely  so  clear  and 
fortunate  as  the  others.  But  these,  with  the 
Commemoration  Ode,  are  an  Alpine  group, 
an  undying  part  of  our  national  literature. 

CLASSICISM. 

The  poetry  called  classic  in  our  time  has 
little  vitality.  The  poems  of  Matthew  Ar 
nold,  for  instance,  cold  and  correct  as  mort- 


134  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

uary  tributes,  differ  from  pensive  prose  only 
in  respect  to  metrical  form.  In  this  sense 
Lowell's  poems  are  not  classic :  they  are  in 
stinct  with  life.  They  show  marks  of  care ; 
but  the  care  has  been  bestowed  less  upon 
melody  than  upon  condensation  and  energy. 
The  earlier  poems  were  more  melodious.  In 
stances  enough  could  be  given,  but  two  stan 
zas  from  "The  Dandelion"  must  serve  :  — 

"  Then  think  I  of  deep  shadows  on  the  grass,  — 
Of  meadows  where  in  sun  the  cattle  graze, 

Where,  as  the  breezes  pass, 
The  gleaming  rushes  lean  a  thousand  ways,  — 

Of  leaves  that  slumber  in  a  cloudy  mass, 
Or  whiten  in  the  wind,  —  of  waters  blue 

That  from  the  distance  sparkle  through 
Some  woodland  gap,  —  and  of  a  sky  above, 
Where  one  white  cloud  like  a  stray  lamb  doth  move. 

"  My  childhood's  earliest  thoughts  are  linked  with  thee  ; 
The  sight  of  thee  calls  back  the  robin's  song, 

Who,  from  the  dark  old  tree 
Beside  the  door,  sang  clearly  all  day  long, 

And  I,  secure  in  childish  piety, 
Listened  as  if  I  heard  an  angel  sing 

With  news  from  heaven,  which  he  could  bring 
Fresh  every  day  to  my  untainted  ears 
When  birds  and  flowers  and  I  were  happy  peers." 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  135 

This  devotion  to  the  force  and  beauty  of 
ideas  is  everywhere  to  be  seen.  The  poet 
will  not  give  up  a  harsh  word,  nor  elide  an 
unmusical  huddle  of  consonants,  if  any 
strength  would  be  lost  thereby.  A  stanza 
from  " Beaver  Brook"  will  illustrate  this:  — 

"  Swift  slips  Undine  along  the  race 
Unheard,  and  then,  with  flashing  bound, 
Floods  the  dull  wheel  with  light  and  grace, 
And,  laughing,  hunts  the  loath  drudge  round." 

Sibilants  and  gutturals  may  delay  the  fas 
tidious  reader,  but  when  the  lines  are  fin 
ished  he  will  think  only  of  the  immortal 
beauty  of  the  image. 

Pure  poetry,  like  the  subtile  essences  of 
the  chemist,  is  rarely  seen  but  in  combina 
tion.  In  itself  it  is  thought  sublimed, 
remote  from  demonstration,  persuasion,  or 
narration.  The  influences  of  the  strong  and 
serviceable  qualities  of  mind  are  apt  to  be 
felt  at  times  in  the  verse  even  of  great  poets, 
-  like  stains  of  iron  in  marble ;  so  that  the 
wholly  fortunate  or  perfect  specimens  are 


136  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

few.  The  common  error  is  in  Lapsing  into 
philosophic  discourse,  or  indulging  in  reflec 
tive  or  hortatory  asides.  Something  of  this 
tendency  appears  in  parts  of  Lowell's  odes, 
dimming  their  lustre,  and  even  tending  to 
obscurity.  There  is  nothing  in  them  obscure 
to  a  well-trained  mind;  but  unfortunately 
not  all  minds  are  so  trained  as  to  dissolve 
his  thought  from  out  the  richly  incrusted 
diction.  So  it  remains  that  the  stronger 
poems  of  Lowell  are  beyond  the  comprehen 
sion  of  all  but  cultivated  readers. 

A  wonderful  sifter  is  Time.  ''Complete" 
works  will  shrink.  Stanzas  or  even  whole 
poems  may  drop  out,  but  the  best  will  be 
preserved.  And  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
an  intelligent  reader,  whether  in  the  year 
2000  or  3000,  will  come  upon  certain  poems 
of  Lowell  without  a  thrill  of  sympathy  and 
delight 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  137 

THE   PROSE  OF  POETS. 

The  prose  writings  of  poets  are  rarely 
conspicuous  for  masculine  qualities.  The 
Laureate  has  been  heard  only  in  numbers,  as 
if,  like  an  operatic  performer,  he  were  theo 
retically  incapable  of  any  but  musical  speech. 
If  his  predecessor  had  similarly  refrained 
from  prosaic  utterances,  he  would  have  been 
the  gainer,  —  and  the  world  too.  Byron 
wrote  natural  and  effective  prose,  but  with 
out  either  trained  ratiocination,  scholarly  al 
lusion,  or  finish.  Cowper's  letters  are  models 
of  ease  and  grace.  Southey's  prose  is  mag 
nificent;  his  poetry?  —  Really  one  questions 
whether  he  was  a  poet  at  all.  "  Thalaba  " 
seems  as  unreal  as  a  Wagnerian  legend  or 
an  Ossianic  wraith.  Milton  alone  holds  a 
fixed  place  among  the  greatest  of  poets  and 
the  ablest  of  prose  writers. 

The  prose  works  of  Lowell  consist  of  the 
"  Fireside  Travels,"  already  referred  to,  and 
three  volumes  of  essays,  published  in  1870, 


138  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

1871,  and  1876.  Of  these,  the  one  entitled 
"My  Study  Windows"  will  be  found  most 
interesting  to  general  readers.  The  other 
two  are  entitled  "  Among  My  Books,"  and 
are  of  a  purely  literary  character.  A  large 
number  of  his  essays  have  appeared  in  maga 
zines  and  reviews,  and  have  not  been  as  yet 
reprinted. 

It  is  a  common  but  baseless  supposition 
tliat  the  poetic  faculty  must  exist  singly ;  as 
if  the  cranium,  like  a  flower-pot,  could  hold 
but  one  plant  It  is  true  that  great  poets  are 
rarely  men  of  affairs ;  but  every  genius  is  an 
absolutely  new  combination  of  traits  and 
powers,  and  no  one  knows  the  possibilities. 
Four  arts  owned  Michelangelo  master,  and 
he  was  almost  equally  great  in  all.  We  have 
seen  that  in  the  mind  of  Lowell  there  is  an 
unfailing  spring  of  analogy  and  suggestion, 
and  a  power  of  illustrating  subtile  and  pro 
found  thoughts.  And  side  by  side  with  this 
undeniable  poetic  power  is  to  be  seen  the 
solid  understanding,  the  ready  wit,  and  the 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  139 

practical  sagacity  that  are  more  commonly 
the  birthright  of  unpoetic  men.  It  •  is  as  if 
the  souls  of  Shelley  and  Ben  Franklin  had 
blended.  The  poet  leads,  but  the  man  of* 
ethereal  imagination  and  the  man  of  sturdy 
force  are  one. 

The  prose  of  a  true  poet,  if  one  reflects 
upon  it,  must  have  some  marked  peculiar 
ities.  That  which  is  of  the  essence  of  poetry 
is  not  in  its  musical  cadence,  not  in  its  shin 
ing  adjectives  and  epithets :  it  is  in  substance 
as  well  as  in  form  different  from  the  ordinary 
productions  of  mind.  And  as  the  power  of 
appreciation  is  really  rare,  though  often  as 
sumed,  the  distinctive  prose  of  a  poet  is 
necessarily  quite  removed  from  general  ap 
prehension.  The  difficulty  lies  in  following 
the  movement  of  the  poetic  mind,  which  is 
by  nature  erratic,  if  measured  by  prose  stand 
ards,  —  taking  many  things  for  granted  which 
the  slower-footed  expect  to  see  put  down  in 
order,  —  and  often  supplying  the  omission  of 
a  premiss  in  a  logical  statement,  or  the  want 


140  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

of  a  formal  description,  by  a  single  flashing 
word.  Those  people  who  need  to  have  poe 
try  expounded  to  them,  will  require  similar 
whelp  to  understand  the  prose  of  poets.  "  Villa 
Franca,"  "The  Foot-Path,"  "The  Washers 
of  the  Shroud,"  and  "The  Cathedral"  will 
never  be  easy  of  comprehension  ;  such  poems 
make  drafts  upon  the  knowledge  and  the 
insight  of  even  superior  minds.  Certain 
of  Lowell's  essays  —  especially  those  upon 
Shakespeare,  Dante,  and  Milton  —  will  be 
fully  appreciated  by  only  a  limited  num 
ber  of  readers  in  any  generation. 

IX) WELL'S  PROSE. 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  this  rich  and  im 
aginative  prose,  permeated  as  it  is  with  the 
essence  of  poetry,  should  have  called  forth 
unfavorable  comment  and  objurgation.  Pro 
fessor  Wilkinson,  some  years  ago,  wrote  a 
series  of  labored  articles  in  a  popular  mag 
azine,  which  it  was  expected  were  to  demol 
ish  our  poet's  reputation  as  an  essayist. 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  141 

Perhaps  some  characteristic  sentences  will 
better  illustrate  our  meaning  as  to  the  diver 
gence  between  the  poetic  and  the  prosaic 
mind. 

Of  Wordsworth,  Lowell  says  :  — 

"  His  longer  poems  are  Egytian  sand  wastes,  with 
here  and  there  an  oasis  of  exquisite  greenery,  a 
grand  image,  Sphynx-like,  half  buried  in  drifting 
commonplaces,  or  the  Pompey's  Pillar  of  some 
towering  thought." 

How  absurd  this  is  !  What  has  Words 
worth  to  do  with  Egypt  and  the  Sphynx  and 
Pompey's  Pillar  ?  —  though,  to  be  sure,  one 
sees  what  he  would  say.  If  it  had  been  the 
critical  professor  who  had  to  give  the  opinion, 
it  might  have  been  phrased  like  this :  "  His 
longer  poems  are  flat  and  dreary,  with  here 
and  there  a  spot  of  human  interest,  —  some 
originally  fine  image,  half  covered  with  mean 
ingless  words,  or  some  striking  thought  that 
holds  the  attention." 

This  is  plain  sailing :  no  nonsense  about  it. 
The  idea  is  the  same,  and  everybody  can 


142  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

understand  it.  In  a  similar  perspicuous  man 
ner  the  "practical"  critic  might  tell  us  of 
Milton's  style:  " Milton  has  a  grand  manner. 
The  sentences  move  slowly  and  with  stateli- 
ness.  He  borrowed  plirases  from  poets  and 
writers  of  all  times;  and  these  epithets  are 
continually  coming  in  the  .way,  obscuring 
the  clear  thought." 

This  is  the  way  Lowell  has  it :  — 

"  Milton's  manner  is  very  grand.  It  is  slow,  it 
is  stately,  moving  as  in  triumphal  procession,  with 
music,  with  historic  banners,  with  spoils  from  every 
time  and  every  region  ;  —  and  captive  epithets  like 
huge  Sicambrians,1  thrust  their  broad  shoulders 
between  us  and  the  pomp  they  decorate." 

Of  course  this  is  all  wrong.  Burke,  also, 
ought  to  undergo  revision.  If  a  practical 
person  were  to  undertake  it,  it  is  probable 
that  the  twelve  volumes  of  Burke  could  be 
compressed  into  tliree  or  four,  simply  leaving 

1  "  Te  csede  gaudentis  Sicambri 
Compositis  venerantur  armis." 

Hor.  Lib.  IV.  Carm.  XIV. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  143 

out  useless  images,  and  the  like.  The  staple 
of  "  Modern  Painters "  could  be  printed  in 
one  duodecimo.  Following  the  same  plan, 
each  of  Hawthorne's  romances  could  be  got 
into  the  limits  of  a  magazine  story ;  and,  by 
eliminating  the  fine  writing  and  metaphysics, 
they  would  be  as  easily  understood  as  Peter 
Parley  or  the  Rollo  Books. 

The  prose  essays  of  Lowell l  cover  a  wide 
range  of  thought  and  observation,  but  all 
have  the  inevitable  family  likeness.  Men 
tion  has  been  made  of  the  delightful  "  Fire 
side  Travels."  Of  a  similar  tone  are  "  My 
Garden  Acquaintance,"  "A  Good  Word  for 
Winter,"  and  "  On  a  Certain  Condescen 
sion  in  Foreigners."  The  last  is  a  speci 
men  of  pure  irony,  keen  as  a  Damascus 
blade,  and  finished  to  the  utmost.  It  is 
doubtful  if  there  is  another  essay  in  modern 
English  superior  in  power,  wit,  and  adroit 
ness.  The  essay  upon  Lessing  is  a  charming 

1  "  Among  My  Books,"  2  vols.  ;  "  My  Study  Windows," 
1  vol. 


144  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

piece  of  writing,  full  of  bright  passages,  but 
interesting  mainly  to  scholars.  "  New  Eng 
land  Two  Centuries  Ago "  is  an  historical 
article,  in  which  the  Puritans  and  Pilgrims 
are  boldly  sketched,  —  neither  unduly  flat 
tered  nor  summarily  condemned. 

GOLD  IN  QUARTZ. 

A  few  ^additional  specimens  of  poetical 
imagery  are  quoted  :  — 

"  The  commentary  on  Shakespeare  by  Gervinus 
reminds  one  of  the  Roman  Camp;igna,  penetrated 
underground  in  all  directions  by  strange  winding 
caverns,  the  work  of  human  borers  in  search  of  we 
know  not  what.  Above  are  the  divine  poet's  larks 
and  daisies,  his  incommunicable  skies,  his  broad 
prospects  of  life  and  nature ;  and  meanwhile  our 
Teutonic  teredo  worms  his  way  below,  and  offers  to 
be  our  guide  into  an  obscurity  of  his  own  creating." 

"  The  German  Language  has  such  a  fatal  genius 
for  going  stern-foremost,  for  yawing,  and  for  not 
minding  the  helm  without  some  ten  minutes'  notice 
in  advance,  that  he  must  be  a  great  sailor  indeed 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  145 

who  can  safely  make  it  the  vehicle  for  anything  but 
imperishable  commodities." 

"  Wordsworth  wrote  too  much  to  write  always 
well ;  for  it  is  not  a  great  Xerxes-army  of  words, 
but  a  compact  Greek  ten  thousand  that  march 
safely  down  to  posterity." 

"  The  best  of  Schiller's  lyrical  poems  find  no 
match  in  modern  verse  for  rapid  energy,  —  the 
very  axles  of  language  kindling  with  swiftness." 

"  Chaucer's  best  tales  run  on  like  one  of  our 
inland  rivers,  sometimes  hastening  a  little  and 
turning  upon  themselves  in  eddies  that  dimple 
without  retarding  the  current ;  sometimes  loitering 
smoothly,  while  here  and  there  a  quiet  thought,  a 
tender  feeling,  a  pleasant  image,  a  golden-hearted 
verse,  opens  quietly  as  a  water-lily,  to  float  on  the 
surface  without  breaking  it  into  ripple." 

As  some  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the 
poetical  ornaments  of  the  style,  or  rather, 
it  might  be  said,  upon  the  diffusion  of  golden 
grains  of  poetry  through  the  quartz  of  prose, 
it  should  be  again  stated  more  emphatically 

that  the  literary  essays  are  chiefly  valuable 

10 


146  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

for  their  clear  thought  and  their  varied  and 
splendid  learning.  Let  any  student  read  the 
essay  on  Chaucer,  and  then  consider  where 
he  can  find  its  parallel !  It  is  not  merely 
a  specimen  of  magnificent  writing:  it  is  a 
compact  and  lucid  account  of  the  origin  and 
growth  of  English  poetry,  with  a  series  of 
brilliant  characterizations ;  and  it  is  such  an  • 
account  as  no  historian  or  critic  has  made. 
The  antiquarian  scholars  have  the  literal 
facts  at  command ;  but  no  one  possessed  of 
the  necessary  erudition  has  had  at  the  same 
time  the  power  of  raising  literary  annals  into 
aesthetic  history.  Taine's  treatment  of  the 
same  period  is  characteristically  pretentious, 
sentimental,  and  shallow. 

We  can  see  evidences  of  the  same  thorough 
preparation  in  the  other  essays.  Lowell 
has  never  trusted  to  "style"  to  carry  him 
through:  not  Dryasdust  himself  could  have 
had  the  details  of  the  subject  more  at  com 
mand.  So  it  may  be  asserted,  in  general, 
that  each  essay  contains  the  latest  thought  as 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  147 

well  as  the  most  complete  information.  All 
of  them  are  redolent  of  learning,  and  all  have 
an  incommunicable  flavor.  The  treatment 
of  Dryden  is  able  and  masterly ;  albeit  his 
numerous  apostasies  are  too  leniently  dealt 
with.  Spenser  is  the  subject  of  an  essay 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  upon  Chaucer,  and 
equally  indispensable  to  students  of  English 
literature. 

Dante  seems  to  be  a  literature  in  himself, 
and  none  but  devoted  students  have  the  right 
to  judge  him,  or  the  essays  upon  him.  It 
may  be  observed  that  most  who  have 
studied  Dante  profoundly  have  become  in 
the  end  conservatives  in  religion,  if  not  Cath 
olics.  The  circle  of  his  admirers  is  neces 
sarily  small.  Lowell's  essay  is  evidently 
a  tribute  of  affection  ;  and  as  the  esti 
mate  of  a  poet,  it  is  worthy  of  respectful 
study.  It  exhibits  the  results  of  protracted 
thought  upon  the  highest  themes  which  have 
occupied  the  mind  of  man. 

But   of    all   the   series,   the    one   entitled 


148  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

"  Shakespeare  Once  More  "  is  doubtless  the 
best.  There  will  always  be  some  new  light 
radiating  from  the  works  of  the  greatest  of 
poets,  and  each  succeeding  generation  will 
be  satisfied  only  with  its  own  estimate ;  but 
the  most  comprehensive  estimate  of  Shakes 
peare  to-day  is  Lowell's. 

The  essays  of  Lowell,  it  must  be  admitted, 
have  not  the  elements  of  general  popularity. 
Criticism  in  its  highest  form  is  not  attractive 
except  to  thinkers.  The  few  essays  that  are 
widely  read  —  like  Macaulay's  and  Carlyle's 
—  are  studies  of  historical  characters,  or  of 
great  epochs,  with  graphic  personal  descrip 
tions  and  parallels,  treated  in  a  highly- 
wrought  style  of  rhetoric.  In  fact,  the 
ordinary  critical  essays,  unless  there  is  a 
personal  flavor  in  them,  such  as  we  perceive 
in  Montaigne  and  in  the  "  Autocrat  of  the 
Breakfast  Table,"  are  as  short-lived  as  the 
reign  of  a  London  beauty.  The  changes  in 
literary  fashion  soon  make  the  critic  obsolete. 
Except  as  curiosities,  who  cares  now  for  the 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  149 

opinions   of  Lockhart,  Jeffrey,   Mackintosh, 

Gifford,  and  the  rest  I  The  tables  are  turned. 
Byron,  Keats,  Shelley,  Coleridge,  and  Words 
worth  now  "  compute  "  their  reviewers.  In 
general,  it  may  be  said  that  the  quality  which 
prevents  the  general  appreciation  of  Lowell's 
prose  is  its  exceeding  richness.  It  is  like 
cloth  of  gold,  —  too  splendid  and  too  cum 
brous  for  every-day  wear. 

It  is  upon  his  poems  that  the  sure  foun 
dation  of  Lowell's  fame  will  rest.  Some  of 
them  are  the  clear  and  fortunate  expression 
of  the  noblest  modern  thought,  and  others 
are  imbedded  in  the  history  of  an  eventful 
time.  When  the  relative  perspective  of  his 
tory  is  adjusted,  Lincoln's  proclamation  of 
freedom  to  the  slave  will  tower  in  importance. 
The  elders  are  perhaps  weary  of  the  topic, 
but  the  vindication  of  the  anti-slavery  agi 
tators  and  poets  may  be  safely  left  to  Time. 


150  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 

PERSONAL  TRAITS  AND  ANECDOTES. 

In  person  Lowell  is  of  medium  height, 
rather  slender,  but  sinewy  and  active.  His 
movements  are  deliberate  rather  than  impul 
sive,  indicating  what  athletes  call  staying 
qualities.  His  hair  at  maturity  was  dark 
auburn  or  ruddy  chestnut  in  color,  and  his 
full  beard  rather  lighter  and  more  glowing  in 
tint.  The  eyes  of  men  of  genius  are  seldom 
to  be  classified  in  ordinary  terms,  though  it 
is  said  their  prevailing  color  is  gray.  Colonel 
Higginson  mentions  Hawthorne's  gray  eyes  ; 
while  the  present  writer,  who  once  studied 
them  attentively,  found  them  mottled  gray 
and  brown,  and  at  that  time  indescribably 
soft  and  winning.  That  they  were  some 
times  accipitral  we  can  readily  believe. 
Lowell's  eyes  in  repose  have  clear  blue  and 
gray  tones,  with  minute  dark  mottlings.  In 
expression  they  are  strongly  indicative  of  his 
moods.  When  fixed  upon  study,  or  while 
listening  to  serious  discourse,  they  are  grave 


A    BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  151 

and  penetrating;  in  ordinary  conversation 
they  are  bright  and  cheery ;  in  moments  of 
excitement  they  have  a  wonderful  lustre. 
Nothing  could  be  finer  than  his  facial  expres 
sion  while  telling  a  story  or  tossing  a  repartee. 
The  features  are  alive  with  intelligence  ;  and 
eyes,  looks,  and  voice  appear  to  be  working 
up  dazzling  effects  in  concert,  like  the  finished 
artists  of  the  Comedie  Fran9aise. 

The  wit  of  Hosea  Biglow  is  the  native  wit 
of  Lowell,  —  instantaneous  as  lightning ;  and 
Hosea's  common  sense  is  Lowell's  birthright, 
too.  When  the  same  man,  moreover,  can 
extemporize  chuckling  puns,  or  blow  out  a 
breath  of  poetical  reverie  as  naturally  as  the 
smoke  from  his  pipe,  the  combination  be 
comes  almost  marvellous.  Other  men  may 
have  been  as  witty,  though  we  recall  but 
three  or  four  in  our  day ;  some  may  have 
had  a  similar  fund  of  wisdom  mellowed  with 
humor  ;  others  have  talked  the  staple  of  idyls, 
and  let  off  metaphors  like  soap-bubbles ;  but 
Lowell  combines  in  conversation  the  varied 


152  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

powers  of  all.  His  resources  are  inexhausti 
ble.  It  is  no  wonder  that  he  has  been  ad 
mired  ;  for  at  his  best  he  is  one  of  the  most 
fascinating  of  men.  There  is  but  one  com 
peer,  —  the  immortal  Autocrat,  —  and  it 
would  be  difficult  and  perhaps  impossible  to 
draw  a  parallel  between  them. 

Steele  said  of  a  lady,  that  to  have  known 
and  loved  her  was  a  liberal  education.  More 
than  one  man  who  enjoyed  Lowell's  society 
found  that  the  wise  and  witty  converse  of 
years  did  much  to  supply  lamented  defects 
in  his  own  study  and  training-,  and  perhaps 
warmed  even  late-flowering  plants  into  blos 
som  and  fruitage.  This  also  should  be  said, 
that  every  man  who  has  known  Lowell  well 
considers  him  much  greater  than  the  aggre 
gate  of  his  works.  He  always  gives  the  im 
pression  of  power  in  reserve,  and  of  the 
probability  of  still  higher  achievement. 

He  used  to  enter  upon  the  long  walks 
which  have  aided  in  making  him  one  of  the 
poets  of  nature  with  the  keenest  zest  There 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  153 

was  no  quicker  eye  for  a  bird  or  squirrel,  a 
rare  flower  or  bush,  and  no  more  accurate 
ear  for  the  songs  or  the  commoner  sounds  of 
the  forest.  Evidences  of  this  the  reader  will 
find  in  the  "  Study  Windows."  But  those 
who  have  visited  Fresh  Pond,  Clematis 
Brook,  Love  Lane,  or  the  "Waverley  Oaks 
in  his  company  remember  an  acuteness  of 
vision  and  a  delight  in  every  form  of  beauty 
of  which  the  essay  gives  no  conception. 

His  habits  have  been  scarcely  methodical, 
— reading,  correspondence,  composition,  ex 
ercise,  and  social  converse  coming  often  hap 
hazard,  —  yet,  being  incapable  of  idleness, 
he  has  accomplished  much.  His  reading  has 
been  enormous,  covering  the  literature  of 
many  countries  and  times  :  from  Marco  Polo 
to  Doctor  Kane ;  from  Piers  Plowman  to 
Swinburne ;  from  the  Christian  Fathers  to 
Channing;  from  Boccaccio  and  Cervantes 
to  Thackeray ;  from  Froissart  to  Motley  ;  — 
and  this  has  given  him  the  materials  indis 
pensable  to  a  great  writer.  His  works  show 


154  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL, 

the  effective  use  he  has  made  of  the  intel 
lectual  treasures  of  the  world. 

Mrs.  Hawthorne  relates  that  before  her  hus 
band  completed  "  The  Scarlet  Letter  "  there 
was  a  visible  ktiot  in  the  muscles  of  his  fore 
head,  caused  by  the  intensity  of  thought. 
When  a  great  theme  was  in  mind,  Lowell 
used  always  to  go  to  his  desk  with  all  his 
might.  Like  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  he  could 
"toil  terribly."  It  has-been  already  men 
tioned  that  "Sir  Launfal"  was  written  in 
about  two  days.  The  production  of  a  poem 
like  "The  Cathedral "  or  the  Commemoration 
Ode  taxed  his  faculties  to  the  utmost,  and 
always  left  him  exhausted  in  body  and  mind. 
At  such  periods  his  wife  and  daughter,  know 
ing  his  nature  and  needs,  used  various  arti 
fices  to  divert  him,  and  prevent  the  strain 
becoming  too  tense. 

THE  WHIST  CLUB. 

Between  1850  and  1860,  Lowell  was  not 
much  in  society,  in  the  present  restricted 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  155 

sense  of  the  word.  Dinner  parties  and  recep 
tions  of  the  fashionable  world  appeared  to 
have  little  attraction  for  him.  He  never 
enjoyed  being  lionized.  In  Cambridge  there 
were  several  men  with  whom  he  was  on  in 
timate  terms,  and  to  them  he  gave  his  society 
ungrudgingly.  Chief  among  these  was  his 
brother-in-law,  Dr.  Estes  Howe,  a  man  of 
liberal  education  and  delightful  social  quali 
ties.  He  is  "The  Doctor"  referred  to  in  the 
preface  to  the  "Fable  for  Critics."  "The 
Don"  was  a  pleasant  nickname  for  Mr.  Robert 
Carter,  formerly  Lowell's  coadjutor  in  .the 
short-lived  "Pioneer,"  and  employed  at  that 
time  as  secretary  by  Mr.  Prescott,  the  his 
torian.  Carter  was  a  remarkable  man,  prin 
cipally  on  account  of  his  great  reading  and 
retentive  memory.  He  was  an  able  writer 
also,  but  he  had  read  more  out-of-the-way 
things  than  any  man  living.  Lowell  used  to 
say  that  he  would  back  Carter  on  a  wager 
to  write  off-hand  an  account  of  a  journey 
in  the  fifth  century  B.  C.  from  Rome  to 


156  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

Babylon  or  Pekin,  with  descriptions  of  all 
the  peoples  on  the  way.  Carter  lived  at  first 
in  a  modest  house  near  the  Willows  (cele 
brated  in  Lowell's  verse),  and  afterwards  in 
Sparks  Street,  not  far  from  the  Riedesel 
House.  The  Sparks  Street  house  has  asso 
ciations  such  as  belong  to  the  tavern  of 
Kit  North's  friend  Ambrose,  —  lacking,  how 
ever,  the  overplus  of  toddy  and  the  coarse 
ness  which  smirched  the  discourse  of  the 
Blackwood  coterie.  Carter's  house  was  often 
a  rendezvous  for  whist  parties.  But  whist 
was  the  least  of  the  business  or  pleasure 
of  the  evening.  The  new  books,  —  or  old 
ones,  —  magazines,  pictures,  reminiscences, 
and  stories  occupied  the  available  intervals. 
The  silence  and  severity  of  Mrs.  Battles  was 
unknown.  Charles  Lamb  and  his  venerable 
dame  were  often  quoted  by  Lowell,  but  the 
"  rigor  of  the  game  "  was  a  transparent  joke. 
When  a  story  came  to  mind,  or  an  epigram, 
or  double-shotted  pun,  the  cards  might  wait ; 
when  the  story  was  told,  or  the  puns  had  cor- 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  157 

ruscated  amid  roars  of  laughter,  the  professor 
would  blandly  ask,  "  What  are  trumps  ?  " 

Other  players  must  rest  in  shadow.  Two 
of  them  may  be  named  in  whom  the  reading 
world  has  an  interest.  One  was  John  Bart- 
lett,  author  of  the  book  of  "  Familiar  Quota 
tions,"  a  charming  companion,  and  a  man  of 
refined  taste.  The  other,  who  was  the  de 
light  of  all  companies,  was  John  Holmes, 
brother  of  the  poet-professor.  He  was  'the 
songless  poet,  the  silent  Autocrat.  It  is  diffi 
cult  to  say  what  he  might  have  done  if  shut 
up  with  pen,  ink,  and  paper ;  but  he  had  the 
rarest  humor  and  a  genius  for  the  unexpected. 
He  always  had  the  art  of  showing  the  other 
side  of  a  statement,  and  of  bringing  a  joke 
out  of  the  impossible,  like  a  conjurer. 

Changes  in  the  whist  parties  occurred,  as 
was  natural,  owing  to  illness  or  absence ; 
but  they  continued  for  several  years.  The 
members  are  all  living  except  Carter,  who 
died  in  Cambridge  about  a  year  ago,  univer 
sally  regretted.  May  he  rest  in  peace !  The 


158  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

recollections  of  that  period  form  a  bond  not 
to  be  sundered  while  life  and  thought  con 
tinue. 

Of  the  other  friends  of  Lowell  much  might 
be  said  if  there  were  room.  Some  of  them 
are  named  in  his  books. 

HINTS  OF  FRIENDSHIPa 

The  edition  of  poems  published  in  1849 
was  affectionately  dedicated  to  the  eminent 
painter,  William  Page.  The  second  series 
of  the  "  Biglow  Papers "  was  appropriately 
inscribed  to  E.  R.  Hoar,  who  is 

"  the  Jedge,  who  covers  with  his  hat 
More  wit  an'  gumption  an'  shrewd  Yankee  sense 
Than  there  is  mosses  on  an  ole  stone  fence." 

"  Fireside  Travels  "  is  a  series  of  letters  ad 
dressed  to  Story,  the  sculptor.  "  Under  the 
Willows"  bears  the  name  of  Charles  Eliot 
Norton,  Professor  of  the  History  of  Art  at 
Cambridge  ;  "  The  Cathedral  "  is  inscribed 
to  Mr.  James  T.  Fields ;  "  Three  Memorial 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  159 

Poems,"  to  Mr.  E.  L.  Godkin,  editor  of  the 
"Nation;"  "  My  Study  Windows,"  to  Francis 
J.  Child,  Professor  of  English  Literature ; 
"  Among  My  Books,"  to  the  present  Mrs. 
Lowell ;  the  second  volume  of  the  same  se 
ries  to  the  illustrious  Emerson.  The  chief 
honor  appears  to  have  been  paid  to  George 
William  Curtis,  to  whom  the  complete  edi 
tion  of  poetical  works  is  dedicated. 

Arthur  Hugh  dough,  an  English  scholar 
and  poet,  lived  in  Cambridge  for  about  a 
year  (1855),  and  appears  to  have  made  a 
deep  impression  upon  Lowell.  The  un 
learned  public  knows  little  of  Clough ;  but 
all  poets  know  the  author  of  "  The  Bothie  " 
and  "  Qua  Cur  sum  Ventus"  and  cultivated 
people  know  the  charming  memoir  of  the 
author  by  Professor  Norton.  He  had  a 
beautiful,  spiritual  face  and  delicate,  shy 
manners;  such  a  face  and  such  manners  as 
are  dimly  seen  in  morning  dreams.  One 
may  be  sure  that  such  a  rare  being,  if  real 
flesh  and  blood,  would  at  some  time  be  found 


160  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

at  Elmwood.  Clough  strongly  advised  Low 
ell  to  continue  and  develop  the  Yankee  pas 
torals.  In  the  introduction  to  the  "  Biglow 
Papers,"  Lowell  says,  apropos  of  the  approval 
of  friends :  "  With  a  feeling  too  tender  and 
grateful  to  be  mixed  with  any  vanity,  I  men 
tion  as  one  of  these  the  late  A.  H.  Clough, 
who  more  than  any  one  of  those  I  have 
known  (no  longer  living),  except  Hawthorne, 
impressed  me  with  the  constant  presence  of 
that  indefinable  thing  we  call  genius." 

The  artists  Stillman  and  Rowse  were  fre 
quent  visitors.  Many  of  their  pictures  and 
sketches  adorn  Lowell's  house. 

Cranch  the  poet  and  painter  was  a  fre 
quent  and  welcome  visitor.  President  Felton 
was  a  stanch  friend,  and  had  great  delight 
in  Lowell's  society.  He  and  his  brother-in- 
law,  Agassiz,  were  alike  hearty  and  natural 
men,  fond  of  social  pleasure,  and  manifesting 
the  unaffected  simplicity  of  children.  Few 
men  have  won  such  deserved  distinction  in 
science  and  letters,  and  retained  the  freshness 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  161 

of  youthful  feeling.  At  the  club,  Agassiz 
was  generally  the  centre  of  interest ;  for  his 
vast  knowledge  enabled  him  always  to  fur 
nish  some  ready  and  pertinent  analogue. 

Longfellow's  house  is  but  a  short  distance 
from  Elmwood,  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  mile ; 
and  the  relations  of  the  two  poets  have 
always  been  intimate,  as  every  observant 
reader  knows.  Holmes  lives  in  Boston  ;  but 
he  was  a  frequent  visitor  in  Cambridge  at 
the  old  house  near  the  college,  especially 
while  his  mother  lived.  Lowell  always  paid 
tribute  to  the  consummate  art  and  finish  of 
his  friendly  rival's  verses,  and  to  the  vigor 
and  freshness  of  his  style.  The  father  of 
Dr.  Holmes  was  a  stout  Orthodox  clergyman ; 
Lowell's  father  was  a  mild  and  conservative 
Unitarian.  The  Autocrat  has  developed  into 
a  liberal,  and  our  poet  has  been  growing 
more  conservative,  until  now  the  relative 
positions  of  the  sons  are  nearly  the  reverse 
of  those  of  their  fathers. 


11 


162  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

A  CHARACTER. 

Among  the  strange  and  remarkable  people 
that  come  to  mind,  Count  Gurowski  may 
be  mentioned.  That  brilliant  and  eccentric 
man,  in  exile  from  his  beloved  Russia,  was 
engaged  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures  on 
the  civil  law  at  the  University.  His  habit 
of  unsparing  censure  soon  got  him  into  diffi 
culty.  The  tongue  which  Russian  nobles  and 
dames  had  dreaded  would  wag  in  Cambridge. 
"  Humbug "  and  "  ass  "  were  the  mildest 
terms  he  could  find  for  some  of  the  pro 
fessors.  His  engagement  was  terminated,  and 
he  shortly  after  disappeared.  His  singular 
figure,  his  undaunted  look,  and  his  old-world 
garments  had  made  him  a  conspicuous  object, 
and  he  was  missed.  He  was  too  proud  to 
ask  for  help,  even  for  a  sixpence.  He  pre 
ferred  to  starve.  The  generous  Carter  un 
dertook  to  look  him  up,  and  after  a  long 
search  found  him  digging  in  Hovey's  nursery 
grounds,  at  a  dollar  a  day.  He  was  wretched, 


^1  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  163 

because  old  and  unused  to  manual  labor. 
Carter  took  him  to  his  house,  and  kept  him 
until  some  turn  of  fortune  put  the  former 
statesman  and  diplomatist  on  his  feet  again. 
While  he  was  at  Carter's  house  a  meeting  of 
the  whist  club  occurred.  Gurowski  could 
not  say  enough  to  Carter's  friends  of  his 
gratitude  to  the  man  who  he  declared  had 
saved  his  life.  But  in  the  course  of  the  even 
ing  he  said  a  great  deal  more.  He  attacked 
everybody  and  everything.  He  combated 
modern  philosophy,  scouted  modern  history, 
and  belittled  modern  poets.  He  was  the 
autocrat  of  all  the  Russias,  and  of  mankind 
in  general.  The  lustre  of  his  remaining  eye 
(its  fellow  had  been  quenched  in  a  duel)  was 
fascinating,  and  held  his  audience  like  Cole-, 
ridge's  Ancient  Mariner.  He  bore  down  upon 
the  company  like  a  full-rigged  ship  in  a  trade 
wind,  with  all  sails  set.  He  would  have  no 
contradiction.  Sic  volo,  sic  jubeo.  Lowell 
interposed  now  and  then  some  bright  and 
apposite  remarks,  but  Gurowski  tolerated  no 


164  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

criticism  or  qualification.  In  the  conflict  of 
impetuous  talk  he  was  the  Missouri  bearing 
the  current  of  the  clearer  and  gentler  Mis 
sissippi  away  to  the  opposite  shore.  His 
command  of  English,  like  Kossuth's,  was 
miraculous,  and  the  foreign  accent  was  an 
attraction  rather  than  impediment.  But,  of 
course,  he  was  arbitrary  and  unjust  to  the  last 
degree ;  and  his  triumph  was  not  one  of  logic, 
for  he  talked  for  victory  only.  Such  an  ex 
hibition  was  an  experience  of  a  lifetime.  To 
be  sure,  it  settled  no  facts  nor  principles,  but 
it  gave  one  an  idea  of  the  vast  resources  of  a 
great  mind  under  the  guidance  of  a  moody 
and  wayward  temper. 

EDMUND  QUINCY. 

Edmund  Quincy,  son  of  the  eminent  presi 
dent  of  Harvard,  a  man  of  education,  taste, 
and  wealth,  was  one  of  the  foremost  of  the 
early  abolitionists,  and  a  ready  and  indus 
trious  writer  upon  the  great  question  of  his 
day.  He  was  an  early  and  intimate  friend 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  165 

of  Lowell,  and  their  visits  were  frequent. 
Mr.  Quincy  had  a  large  and  comfortable 
house,  of  the  style  of  a  century  ago,  at 
Dedham,  near  the  Charles.  There  was  a 
noble  grove  of  pine-trees  in  the  rear,  ex 
tending  to  the  river's  edge.  The  estate  was 
called  Bankside.  Mr.  Quincy  is  commemo 
rated  in  a  fine  poem  under  this  title.  There 
is  a  reference  to  it,  also,  in  "  The  Cathe 
dral."  Mr.  Quincy  took  a  warm  interest 
in  the  "  Atlantic,"  having  been  one  of  the 
original  coterie  of  fourteen.  He  contrib 
uted  no  long  articles ;  but  several  book 
notices  are  still  remembered  for  their  pun 
gent  wit  and  epigrammatic  force.  He  died 
a  few  years  ago,  and  it  is  permitted  now 
to  say  that  few  more  elegant  and  accom 
plished  men  have  ever  been  reared  in  Mas 
sachusetts.  His  manners  were  courtly  and 
refined,  never  cold  or  formal.  His  address 
was  graceful,  and  his  courtesy  unfailing. 
Lowell  used  to  say  that,  if  we  had  an  aris 
tocracy,  Quincy  would  be  a  duke.  A  visit 


166  JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

to  Bankside  in  the  old  days  was  something 
to  be  remembered. 


BEGINS  PUBLIC  LIFE  AT  THE  TOP. 

In  the  course  of  this  sketch  there  has  been 
little  attempt  to  follow  order.  The  events  of 
Lowell's  life  since  1860  have  been  few.  The 
important  dates  are  the  dates  of  his  books. 
One  year  has  been  like  another,  passed  at 
the  same  residence,  cheered  by  the  same 
friends,  engrossed  in  the  same  studies  and 
pleasures.  He  visited  Europe  with  Mrs. 
Lowell  in  1873.  He  had  never  held  office, 
not  even  that  of  justice  of  the  peace ;  and 
thougli  he  has  always  had  a  warm  interest 
in  public  affairs,  he  has  not  been  a  politician. 
It  was  therefore  with  some  surprise  as  well 
as  gratification  that  his  friends  heard  of  his 
appointment  as  Minister  to  Spain.  He  had 
been  offered  the  Austrian  mission,  and  had 
declined  it ;  but  some  good  spirit,  perhaps  Mr. 
Howells  (a  relative  of  President  Hayes),  sug- 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  167 

gested  that  Vienna  was  perhaps  not  the  place 
to  attract  a  scholar  and  poet,  and  that  Ma 
drid  would'  be  preferable,  even  with  a  smaller 
salary.  After  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Welsh, 
minister  to  England,  Mr.  Lowell  was  trans 
ferred  to  London.  His  reception  in  the 
metropolis  of  letters  and  of  English-speaking 
people  has  been  in  the  highest  degree  cor 
dial  and  honorable. 

He  still  holds  his  rank  as  professor  at 
Cambridge,  evidently  expecting  to  resume 
his  duties  there.  Perhaps  in  the  Indian  sum 
mer  of  his  life  he  may  put  his  heart  into  a 
poem  that  will  be  even  more  worthy  of  his 
genius  than  any  he  has  yet  written. 


University  Press :    John  Wilson  &  Son,  Cambridge. 


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